The Big Picture
- Secret Invasion sets up the events of Armor Wars, giving War Machine a solo adventure to clean up the mess left by his Skrull impersonator.
- The Skrull twist in Secret Invasion will have lasting consequences, leading to a widespread war against the Skrulls after the U.S. President wages war on the Skrulls.
- The reveal of the Skrulls to humanity has changed the balance of power in the MCU and opens the door for more exciting stories, including Thunderbolts and Captain America: Brave New World.
Editor's note: The below contains full spoilers for Secret Invasion.As soon as Armor Warswas announced in 2020, Marvel Studios fans celebrated the idea of James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) stepping out of Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr.) shadow and getting his first solo adventure as War Machine. In 2022, the project was reworked as a feature film so that the creative team behind the story could have the budget they needed to do War Machine justice. The announcement also came with the reveal Secret Invasion would set up the events of Armor Wars, which it most definitely did. Now that the MCU’s spy thriller series is done, we have a clearer idea of where Rhodey’s journey will take him next.
RELATED: G'iah Is Right, Talos Failed as a General in ‘Secret Invasion’
What Happens to James Rhodes in ‘Secret Invasion’?
Since Iron Man, the first movie in the MCU, Rhodey (played then by Terrence Howard) was introduced as a loyal member of the U.S. military. While he was frequently willing to help Tony and the Avengers when Earth was threatened, the character still preferred to play by the rules. After Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) Snap, Rhodey rose to the ranks and became a trustworthy consultant for the President of the United States (Dermot Mulroney). That’s his role in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a TV show that reveals how important Rhodey has become for U.S. diplomacy. Secret Invasion keeps this thread, with the President sending Rhodey to dismiss the accusations that U.S. citizens were behind a terrorist attack on Russian soil – one of the steps in Gravik’s (Kingsley Ben-Adir) plan to start World War III. Rhodey also fires Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) after he fails to prevent the death of Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders).
Rhodey’s first appearance in Secret Invasion underlines how he decided to stick with his official position in the U.S. government after the events of Avengers: Endgame. However, by Episode 4 of Secret Invasion, we learn that the Skrull Raava has been impersonating Rhodey under Gravik’s orders. The goal is to stir the pot and push the U.S. President to start World War III. Skrull-Rhodey becomes a major player in the Secret Invasion finale when they convince the President to order a nuclear assault in New Skrullos, an abandoned atomic station located on Russian soil. Fortunately, Fury and Sonya (Olivia Colman) join forces to break into the hospital where the President is being held and expose the Skrull insurgence. This fateful encounter also ends with the death of Skrull-Rhodey.
Secret Invasion’s ending also confirms that the real Rhodey was trapped inside a pod on the basement level of New Skrullos. Gravik kept his human prisoners there so the Skrulls impersonating them could still access their memories when needed. After G’iah (Emilia Clarke) rescues the humans in New Skrullos, we can see Rhodey’s healthy condition is way worse than any of his cellmates. That means he has been kept in stasis longer than anybody else.
It’s also worth noting that the prisoners remain in the same clothes they had when Gravik kidnaps them, and Rhodey is wearing a hospital gown. That, matched with Rhodey’s inability to walk by himself, could indicate that Gravik took the hero during the events of Captain America: Civil War. Rhodey had his spine crushed after being accidentally hit by the Vision (Paul Bettany) during the airport battle. So, Rhodey might have been one of the first humans Gravik replaced while planning his insurgence. However, since he participated in many following battles, it's likely he was replaced later in the story too. However, it's an interesting story development, as it teases a very different Armor Wars.
How Does ‘Secret Invasion’ Set Up ‘Armor Wars’?
In the comic books, the Armor Wars storyline revolves around Tony Stark, who becomes a public enemy due to his crusade to take down all the villains using Stark Tech. In short, Armor Wars is about a hero willing to sacrifice his reputation to fix the mistakes of his past. Although the MCU’s Armor Wars needs to drastically change the comic book storyline since Tony Stark died in Avengers: Endgame, Rhodey’s Skrull twist can help the upcoming movie to be faithful to the original work's themes. Because the Skrull impersonating Rhodey likely did a lot of damage worldwide, especially if he’s been around since Civil War. So, now it’s up for War Machine to clean the mess his Skrull self left behind.
Armor Wars will also be set in a world completely unraveled by Gravik’s insurgence. At the end of Secret Invasion, the U.S. President is so disturbed by being attacked by Skrulls that he decides to pass an emergency bill turning every alien into an enemy combatant. So, instead of working for peace, the President declares war on the Skrulls, causing mass hysteria and leading people to shoot each other for fear of being manipulated by shapeshifting aliens.
The President’s misguided policy will help spread fear and violence worldwide, so Fury tells him that’s a one-term-president decision. Of course, Fury’s line teases how General Ross (Harrison Ford) will take over the White House for Thunderbolts. It is also worth remembering that Captain America: Brave New World was once called Captain America: New World Order. While that was a terrible name, it teased a global transformation of world politics, precisely as we see at the end of Secret Invasion.
The Rhodey Skrull Twist Sets Up Multiple MCU Movies in the Future
Thunderbolts and New World Order are set to be released in 2024, while Armor Wars still didn’t begin production. So, it’s fair to assume all these projects will be somehow connected, as they involve U.S. politics. As a result, we should expect Armor Wars to deal with the widespread war against the Skrull and the repositioning of the U.S. in global diplomacy caused by the racist declarations of the current president and his upcoming replacement by General Ross.
While Secret Invasiondidn’t always manage to do justice to its spy thriller concept, in the end, the series proved to be an essential chapter in MCU history. Thanks to the Skrulls being revealed to humanity, the balance of power in the MCU has changed, opening the door for many more exciting stories to come. Armor Wars will deepen this process by confirming how long a Skrull has impersonated Rhodey and forcing him to use the War Machine armor to carve a new place for himself in a world he no longer recognizes.
All episodes of Secret Invasion are currently available on Disney+.
