Marvel fans are currently wrapped up inside the enigma within the riddle within the puzzle that is WandaVision, but it won't be much longer before a presumably more straightforward MCU tale arrives on the small screen in the form of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan are heading up what was already a solid cast, with a few familiar MCU faces having been previously announced to return. But now, it's been revealed that Don Cheadle's Avengers hero War Machine will also make an appearance or two!
As opposed to being an unsubstantiated rumor from questionable sources, the news of War Machine's arrival on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier came straight from the mouth of Don Cheadle himself. Here's how he put it when speaking to BroBible:
That’s some of the fun of the MCU, that we all get to show up in each other’s stories, and there are ways that we’re cross-platforming these characters, and they become storylines, sometimes, in the movies. And then these storylines in the movies become storylines in the shows. It’s really a fun and interesting and, by all imagination, completely open-ended — this can go anywhere. It’s great, I can’t wait to get in the room with the writers and figure out how all those things [connecting Armor Wars to the MCU] happen. You know, Rhodey shows up in Winter Soldier and Falcon’s show. So, it can be a lot.
Of course, Don Cheadle couldn't offer up lengthy spoilers detailing exactly how and why War Machine will cross paths with Anthony Mackie's Falcon and Sebastian Stan's Winter Soldier. But it's certainly worth speculating whether or not we'll get to see James "Rhodey" Rhodes trying out some new tech before making the jump to his own Disney+ series with Armor Wars. We can only assume he won't also be in the running to take over the Captain America mantle.
Even beyond Rhodey's newly revealed appearance, there are still many unknowns when it comes to the "revolutionary" Falcon and the Winter Soldier, such as how it will connect to WandaVision, with the latter originally intended to premiere as the second MCU series on Disney+ instead of the very first one. But we do know Don Cheadle isn't the only established Marvel actor making a return for this show, as Daniel Brühl will reprise his Civil War character Baron Zemo, and fellow Civil War star Emily VanCamp is set to return as Peggy Carter's niece Sharon. Even former UFC great Georges St-Pierre is returning as Captain America: The Winter Soldier's mercenary Georges Batroc. At this point, the only new star in the bunch is Wyatt Russell, who was tapped to play the militaristic John F. Walker.
Fans won't be able to see Don Cheadle's War Machine in the following trailer, since it was released weeks before that excellent news broke, but it's definitely worth watching (or rewatching) to get hyped up for the next chapter in Captain America's legacy.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is set to debut on Disney+ on Friday, March 19, and there's an excellent chance that even more MCU faves are going to join the fun later in the season.
