War Machine Originally Had ANOTHER Suit In Avengers: Endgame

War Machine almost had another new suit to wear in Avengers: Endgame. While some of his fellow Avengers put their heroic days behind them after they failed to stop Thanos, Rhodey remained part of a new-look Avengers roster Black Widow was leading. Unsurprisingly, he then continued to suit up to help the team once they reformed in an effort to make one more attempt to undo The Snap.

Rhodey may have suggested using time travel to go back and kill Thanos as a child, but that wouldn’t work with Avengers: Endgame‘s time travel rules. Instead, the plan required the Avengers to acquire all six Infinity Stones from the past. The team split up into smaller units and went to three different points in the past, with War Machine teaming up with Nebula to retrieve the Power Stone from Morag. Once they were successful, 2014 Thanos still attacked them and ruined War Machine’s armor in the process. He joined the final battle in a new suit, but Avengers: Endgame almost gave him another one.

As revealed by concept artist Phil Saunders in The Art of Avengers: Endgame, War Machine was going to have three different suits in the movie. Instead, Rhodey wore two suits in the film: the Mark VI costume after The Snap and the War Machine/Iron Patriot Mark VII during the final battle.

“War Machine was an interesting process because at the time when we were working on it, there were going to be three War Machine armors. There was going to be the Mark III armor from Civil War that he crashed in, which was going to be fixed. The Mark IV was going to be used to go back to Morag, and there was a whole sequence where he was underwater. That suit was going to be featured heavily there, and then it was going to get dissolved away by the acidic water – which would lead him to have to put on another suit, the Mark V, which we were calling the cosmic War Machine armor, which was going to be used for battle in space.”

There are a few intriguing tidbits about another version of Avengers: Endgame that comes from this reveal. For starters, the idea of Rhodey getting back in the Mark III armor would be a fascinating addition to his arc. He already struggled to suit up again in the first place, but putting on the suit that he nearly died in could’ve added some layers to Rhodey’s story. What we don’t know is why this suit would need to be fixed for him to wear.

We’ve known about the changes made to the Morag sequence to avoid a giant underwater set piece, but the acidic water is something new. There was no indication in Guardians of the Galaxy or Avengers: Endgame that the water on Morag was acidic. Depending on how acidic the water is, Rhodey may have had to swim through it as fast as possible to avoid the Mark IV suit from Avengers: Infinity War being completely dissolved – and possibly him along with it. In the movie though, it was the Mark VI armor that War Machine wore to Morag.

Additionally, the details on the Mark V armor may reveal a completely different third act for Avengers: Endgame at one time. If Saunders and the development team were referring to it as a cosmic armor, that would imply that it was going to be featured in space. The entirety of Avengers: Endgame‘s final battle takes place at Avengers HQ, but other ideas were surely discussed. That said, it is possible that the War Machine/Iron Patriot suit is built for space and just wasn’t utilized in that way.

About The Author

Cooper Hood
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Cooper Hood is a news and feature writer for Screen Rant. He joined Screen Rant in late 2016 following a year-long stint with MCU Exchange, which came after first developing an MCU blog of his own. He graduated college in 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in Media & Public Communication, with a minor in Media Production. Cooper’s love for movies began by watching Toy Story and Lion King on repeat as a child, but it wasn’t until The Avengers that he took an invested interest in movies and the filmmaking process, leading him to discover the world of film journalism. Every year Cooper looks forward to seeing the latest blockbusters from the likes of Marvel, DC, and Star Wars, but also loves the rush to catch up on Oscar films near the end of the year. When he isn’t writing about or watching new releases, Cooper is a fantasy football obsessive and looking to expand his Blu-Ray collection – because physical media is still king! Follow Cooper on Twitter @MovieCooper.

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