Avengers: Endgame Almost Gave War Machine a Bizarre Costume

While James “Rhodey” Rhodes played a not-insignificant role in the two-part epic of Avenger: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, he hardly got the fun that comes with so many superhero roles — a new, sexy costume. That almost happened, though — and it would have been a wild departure from what came before. Rhodey, if you remember, was seriously injured in Captain America: Civil War and unable to walk without assistance. Luckily for him, his best friend is a billionaire genius, so it was not a problem that they could not overcome together in time for Avengers: Endgame. However, there’s still the question of lugging around that armor.

That problem became an interest for one of the film’s concept artists, who tried to design a new, sleek suit that would have given Rhodey a smaller, more human look, which would have been accompanied by a giant, floating cube that contained his armor, which could presumably open up and affix itself to him a la the suitcase armor Iron Man had.

I did some concept explorations where I added the time-travel suit — or at least some of its features, like patterns and colors — on top of the War Machine armor,” concept arist Aleksi Briclot says in the book Avengers: Endgame – The Art of the Movie. “Here I’ve focused on the human character, Rhodey, and I was thinking that he would carry his armor in a package like this intriguing floating die. Usually War Machine is rawer and bulkier than Iron Man, so it seems that less-advanced nanotech could be involved in it, and that it would need some bigger container for traveling through time. It’s also a symbolic version fo Rhodey carrying his load.”

Avengers: Endgame is now available wherever movies are sold and to stream on Disney+. Avengers: Endgame – The Art of the Movie is out now, and can be ordered here.

Other upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If…? in Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022. Disney+ series without release dates include Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk. Ant-Man 3 and Blade are also without theatrical release dates.