New concept art of Rhodey in Avengers: Infinity War shows him using advanced Stark Tech to fight Proxima Midnight from an impressive distance.
Newly released concept art has revealed that in a cut sequence from Avengers: Infinity War, Rhodey was going to be piloting the War Machine armor remotely via an advanced hologram system.
Artist Phil Saunders, who has worked as a concept artist and illustrator on a number of Marvel Cinematic Universe projects, has shared images of a piece he created for Avengers: Infinity War on Instagram. "This is one from Avengers: Infinity War where James Rhodes is fighting the battle of Edinburgh remotely, with his Tony Stark-designed leg braces locked into a holographic control system for War Machine mk4," Saunders shared in his caption. In the image, Rhodey appears to be suspended inside the machine by large yellow arms attached to the leg braces at the hips.
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Saunders went on to share more details of the cut sequence and the other artists who had worked on it, adding that "Bruce Banner would have been piloting Hulkbuster (design by @joshnizzi.art) in the battle against Proxima Midnight (courtesy of @jsmarantz and @adamwross) and Corvus Glaive (designed by @jsmarantz and @ianjoynerart) [but] sadly the sequence was cut early on."
The Battle of Edinburgh, depicted in Infinity War, saw Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive attack Wanda Maximoff and Vision as the two attempt to take the mind stone from Vision's head, at least before Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, and Natasha Romanoff arrived as backup and fought them to a retreat. Notably, James Rhodes and Bruce Banner did not appear in the final sequence and were both at Avengers Compound when the others arrived from Edinburgh.
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Saunders finished his caption by expressing that he had enjoyed working on the concept, saying "Still it was fun to problem solve how to depict the overlap of the real and holographic action going on!" While Tony Stark has piloted his suits remotely several times, including notable scenes in Iron Man 3 and Spider-Man: Homecoming, a holographic remote piloting system as shown in the art is yet to appear. More armor concepts are coming for the MCU, with Riri Williams/Ironheart making her debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever prior to her own Disney+ series, and Rhodey-centric series Armor Wars reportedly set to start production later this year.
The Hulkbuster armor was first seen in the MCU in Avengers: Age of Ultron as an add-on to the regular Iron Man suit designed for use fighting a rampaging Hulk. A second version of the armor made an appearance in Infinity War in the Battle of Wakanda, piloted by Bruce Banner instead of Tony Stark, as he could not access his Hulk form.
Source: Phil Saunders via Instagram
Lucy Jolliff is a CBR news writer. She is a current university student and aspiring writer.
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