Avengers: Infinity War Nearly Included Shocking War Machine Scene

Over the past few films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, War Machine (Don Cheadle) has served an increasingly important role — eventually helping protect Captain America (Chris Evans) and his Secret Avengers when the proverbial stuff started hitting the fan in Avengers: Infinity War. There was even one iteration in the script that had War Machine seemingly joining the Secret Avengers, helping track down Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) to Edinburgh, where the group made the first contact with members of the Black Order.

It was in this scene War Machine would have gotten sliced in half, leaving the audience absolutely shocked. That is, of course, until would have seen he was remotely piloting the armor from the safety of the Avengers compound in upstate New York. "He was going to be in the battle scene in Edinburgh," Marvel Studios concept artist Phil Saunders says in Avengers: Endgame - The Art of the Movie. "He was going to be sliced in half by one of the Black Order, and we were going to be shocked until we cut to the scene where he is remotely piloting it. The idea was that he was going to have PTSD from his crash, and so he wasn't willing to get back in his suit—but he was able to use his prosthetics, attached to this gyroscopic robotic thing, to control the suit remotely."

The artist adds, "I think there were a couple of reasons why this was not used. One, I think the writers realized that we already used a reveal somewhat like that in Iron Man 3 with Tony Stark remotely piloting his Iron Man suit and it getting hit by a truck, and then the reveal is he's not actually inside it. So that was kind of a repeated beat. And then two, I think there's always the question of if you can remotely pilot something, why ever get in it at all? But it was really fun to design."

We've yet to see what will end up with the character after he helped the team take down Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his army in Avengers: Endgame. At one point, the powers that be wanted to make the character vice president of the United States during Endgame, but eventually passed over it for a smaller storyline.

Avengers: Infinity War can now be streamed on Netflix.

Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall of 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, Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022. Marvel Studios has yet to set release dates for its theatrical releases in Ant-Man 3 and Blade or the Disney+ shows consisting of Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk.

Where do you think War Machine could pop up next? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or by hitting me up on Twitter at @AdamBarnhardt!