At the San Diego Comic Con recently, the first footage from Iron Man 2 was shown by director Jon Favreau, and as expected, it blew minds. The big thing shown that had the majority of people buzzing, was the unveiling of the fan-favorite War Machine — the identity that James Rhodes (Terrence Howard in Iron Man, Don Cheadle in Iron Man 2) takes on with his own high-tech Iron Man-esq suit. While speaking to MTV recently, Mr. Cheadle explained that some conflict may arise between the two friends, which leads everyone to wonder: will Iron Man and War Machine clash in the sequel?
The conflict arises as Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a tad…eccentric, to say the least, and he’s his own man with his own agenda; while Rhodes is used to taking orders. As the Comic Con footage revealed, there is a point where we’re shown that the government is out to claim the Iron Man suit technology, and eventually butt heads with Stark — this could in fact lead to a high-tech superpower showdown. Sounds like a good time!
Here’s what Don Cheadle had to say about his “significant” part in Iron Man 2:
What’s interesting is that there are so many different iterations of War Machine and Tony Stark from all the different comics. It was really trying to find the common thread, the through-line… [And] the through-line really is their friendship. They’re actually really good friends.
We kept asking ourselves: How does that play out with Tony Stark being an independent contractor doing what he wants to do, and Rhodes actually being in the military. There’s a real chain of command he has to follow. What’s the conflict that creates?
As I’ve said before: I’m not exactly familiar with the Iron Man mythology, so I have zero idea if these two ever throw down, but I have to imagine it’s pretty faithful.
Iron Man 2 will be released on May 7, 2010 and also stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, and Scarlett Johansson.
