Rumour has it one Avenger will not be answering the call in Avengers: Doomsday, and it is a sad one for a lot of fans. Scooper Daniel Richtman says Don Cheadle’s James Rhodes, aka War Machine, is not expected to suit up for the movie, and the reason reportedly traces all the way back to Secret Invasion.
As always with Richtman, file this under rumour rather than fact. But the War Machine Avengers Doomsday question has been nagging at fans for a while, and this claim finally puts a reason to the silence.
Why War Machine is reportedly missing from Avengers Doomsday
The theory is blunt: Secret Invasion landed with a thud, its viewership was soft, and Marvel has quietly avoided leaning on anything that show set up. Rhodey was central to that story, right down to the reveal that he had been replaced by a Skrull for a big chunk of the MCU.
I hate that Secret Invasion is probably the reason he is not in Doomsday and that we will not be seeing him anytime soon.
Daniel Richtman
That Skrull twist left Rhodey in a messy spot. The real James Rhodes was rescued but left paralysed, and almost no project since has touched the fallout. If Marvel is treating Secret Invasion as a chapter to move past, a low-key War Machine absence starts to make grim sense.
What this means for Rhodey and Armor Wars
Cheadle has been attached to the long-gestating Armor Wars for years, so a Doomsday no-show would not mean the end of the character. But it would be a strange beat to leave one of the last classic Avengers on the bench for the biggest team-up in a decade. You can see who did make the cut in our confirmed Doomsday cast list.
It also feeds the wider worry that Doomsday is quietly pruning the roster. Between reported deaths in the plot leaks and cast members whose status keeps wobbling, the lineup is far from settled.
Rhodey’s messy MCU standing, quickly
It is worth remembering how thin Rhodey’s recent thread has been. After Age of Ultron and the Civil War injury that put him in leg braces, War Machine spent the Infinity Saga as a reliable soldier rather than a headliner. Then Secret Invasion revealed the version we had been following was a Skrull, which retroactively muddied years of appearances.
That is a hard knot to untie on screen, and it may be simpler for Marvel to keep him parked until Armor Wars can address it properly. The downside is obvious: benching a founding-era Avenger for the multiverse’s biggest brawl feels like leaving money on the table, especially with the nostalgia dial turned all the way up for Doomsday.
How much should you believe this?
Here is the honest read. Richtman is often first and sometimes wrong, and a rumour about who is absent is even harder to verify than a casting reveal, because there is no set photo of someone not being there. Nobody has corroborated it yet.
Still, it tracks with how gun-shy Marvel has been about Secret Invasion, so we would not be shocked. We have logged it on our scored Marvel rumour tracker and will move the needle if a second source backs it. Keep an eye on our MCU cast tracker for the latest on where every Doomsday actor stands.
What happens next
With Doomsday shooting toward a December 18 release, the full and final roster will firm up fast. If Cheadle really is out, expect either a quiet confirmation or a pointed non-answer from Marvel, which tends to speak volumes.
So what do you think: is benching War Machine a fair call after Secret Invasion, or does Rhodey deserve a seat at the table? Sound off below.
Sources: Daniel Richtman via Patreon/X (as reported by SuperHeroHype). Image: Marvel Studios.
