Comic-Con 2022: Don Cheadle Returning as War Machine in Secret Invasion

Don Cheadle is suiting up as War Machine in Secret Invasion. The Marvel Studios thriller, which revealed Cheadle’s casting in the first footage screened at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, will be the Emmy-nominated actor’s first time back in the armored suit since Avengers: Endgame in 2019. Cheadle most recently reprised his role as James “Rhodey” Rhodes opposite Anthony Mackie in the premiere episode of Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, “New World Order,” which earned the Iron Man 2 and Captain America: Civil War actor an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

Ahead of Cheadle’s return in the Iron Man spinoff series Armor Wars, the House of Lies and The Wonder Years star joins a cast that includes Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Kingsley Ben-Adir (Peaky Blinders), Killian Scott (Love/Hate), Carmen Ejogo (Fantastic Beasts), Christopher McDonald (Ballers), and Olivia Colman (The Crown). 

Cheadle appeared in the Secret Invasion teaser trailer played during Marvel Studios’ San Diego Comic-Con panel in Hall H, revealing the first look at the return of former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the Skrull Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), and ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders). Read ComicBook‘s description of the footage below. 

Nick Fury emerges from the light of a ship. He is returning to Earth and has not answered Maria Hill’s calls for help. He tells her this is different. War Machine is questioned about his security detail. Talos encounters evil Skrulls who suddenly emerge. Fury is ready to fight, but [Olivia Coleman’s character] tells him he is in “no shape” to take on the fight. Fury wants to take “them” on. A motorcade is flipped. A look at Emilia Clarke. Talos wants to know what the Skrulls want from Nick Fury and it is not revealed in the trailer. 

Decades after Fury and Talos’ alliance with Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) in Captain Marvel, 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home revealed Fury was away with a Skrull faction in space after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Posing as the one-eyed super-spy, Talos operated on Fury’s behalf on Earth, and the two will reunite when it’s revealed the shape-shifting Skrulls have secretly infiltrated the deepest levels of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“When we think about the world that they’re in, the Skrulls have been around since we saw them in Captain Marvel,” Smulders exclusively told ComicBook.com at Comic-Con. “They’ve been building in numbers, are they good? Are they bad? We’re going to find out in the show. But there’s certainly a lot of them and so it sort of turns into this. Can I trust you? Can I not trust you? And it’s really cool. It’s certainly fraught with a lot of tension.”

Secret Invasion is streaming Spring 2023 on Disney+ as part of Marvel’s Phase 5, the studio announced at Comic-Con. Cheadle will headline the series Armor Wars, which has not announced a release date.