No War Machine in Avengers?

Iron Man 2 had some good things going for it – Mickey Rourke as Whiplash, the cool armor/briefcase combo – but the biggest draw was Don Cheadle wearing the War Machine armor.

In the past, Cheadle had dismissed the idea of a War Machine movie, but he was singing a different tune when MTV caught up to him during this year’s Sundance Film Festival, revealing, “They’re developing it now, they’re working on that. I think they’ve hired a writer, so we’ll see how it goes. It would be a lot of fun.”

However, War Machine fans shouldn’t get their hopes up in anticipation of seeing the heavily armored hero fighting alongside The Avengers. According to Cheadle, “I don’t think he shows up in ['Avengers']. I think he’s kind of a lone wolf.”

I guess the announcement shouldn’t be that big of surprise since Cheadle was noticeably absent from the Comic-Con cast pic of The Avengers.

Cheadle took over the role of James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes in Iron Man 2 from Terrence Howard, who had played the part in the first movie.

***IRON MAN 2 SPOILER ALERT***

Those who haven’t seen Iron Man 2 yet but are planning to might want to stop reading at this point.

Even with Cheadle not being in the Comic-Con pic, I’m still a little shocked that War Machine won’t be in The Avengers because of the way Iron Man 2 ended. While it’s pretty clear that Nick Fury wanted Iron Man to be a part of the Avenger project, he also made it clear that Stark was merely going to be a consultant. I figured War Machine would be the primary Avenger, and that Tony would be forced to suit up in the familiar red and gold armor because of some unsuspected threat.

Oh well, we’re already getting heavy hitters like Captain America, Thor and the Hulk all packed into one movie with Iron Man, along with some minor heroes like Hawkeye. Maybe they figured War Machine would be overkill.

What do you think? Would you prefer War Machine flying solo in his own movie or fighting side-by-side with the Marvel super team?