The Marvel Cinematic Universe is full of heroes. In addition to the big four of Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, and Thor, there are a ton of supporting characters that are more than capable of supporting their own feature films. For instance, there’s enough backstory for Black Widow for at least one film. However, just because they can be in the spotlight of their own feature doesn’t mean that they will be. This appears to be the case for two supporting heroes in particular from Marvel’s slate of Phase Two films.
In a recent interview with Collider, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was flat out asked if there were plans for standalone films in the works for Don Cheadle’s Colonel James Rhodes AKA War Machine, who can be seen currently in ‘Iron Man 3’, and Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson AKA The Falcon, who will debut in ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’. Both men are Avengers in their own right (in the comic books at least), but neither seem to have enough clout around the MCU to warrant talks of their own films. When Feige was asked, “Is anybody at Marvel currently developing or writing a possible Falcon or War Machine spinoff movie?”, he replied with a simple “No”.
Since Marvel employees tend to word things a very certain way, notice that the question said “currently”. I’m sure that it’s possible somewhere down the line for the two of them to each get their own movies, but there are definitely others ahead of them in line. For instance, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and Ms. Marvel are all characters that have been talked about to be next in line after Edgar Wright’s ‘Ant-Man’, which will lead off Phase Three. There’s also the newly reacquired characters like Daredevil, The Punisher, Ghost Rider, and Blade back in the mix at Marvel. Finally, the Runaways were seriously being considered for the big screen treatment as well at one point, but I believe that those talks have died down considerably. The line in developmental is quite long.
Also, even though solo films may not be in the cards for Rhodey and Sam, that doesn’t mean that they won’t pop up in other movies. All of these characters are in a shared universe and can appear in other places at any time. Going back to Natasha Romanoff once again, the Russian super-spy started out in ‘Iron Man 2’ before reappearing in ‘The Avengers’. She’ll be seen next (along with Falcon) in the sequel to ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’. Just because a spin-off isn’t in the cards right now doesn’t mean that the character is disappearing.
But what if War Machine and Falcon did get their own movies? What adventures could you see them taking? To my knowledge, neither really pops up in the comics without some connection to Tony Stark and Steve Rogers respectively, so I don’t even know where their movies would start. If you have some ideas for which storylines could be adapted to put either character in the spotlight, let us know in the comment section.
