I was under the impression the original idea with the War Machine character in Marvel's
Iron Man franchise was that the saga would in the sequels become a little like Batman & Robin. i.e. the Iron Man films wouldn't just be a
Robert Downey Jr lead franchise but instead a Tony Stark/James Rhodes dynamic duo series. You have to remember the environment back in 2006 when
Jon Favreau cast
Terrence Howard as Rhodes before they secured
Robert Downey Jr, an actor they clearly didn't think would be able to secure by the size of Howard's pay deal, and who at that point was seen as the biggest name they would probably attract. But when Robert Downey Jr was so dominant as Tony Stark, and then they had to re-cast Rhodey for the sequel when Howard wasn't willing to lower his mammoth original deal... clearly those plans had changed. And now comes reports from
Pajiba's mostly reliable Hollywood Cog that Marvel are now hearing pitches for a potential
War Machine spin-off film. It's very early days but I'm guessing this could be pencilled in for a 2014 film... though hearing pitches cost little more than meeting times for Marvel's execs, so there's no commitments at all right now.
I presume
Don Cheadle's James Rhodes will appear in both
The Avengers (though briefly) and
Iron Man 3 (much more heavily) - and depending on what storylines these writers can pitch for what a spin-off would look like, perhaps this is part of the post-Avengers plan that will see an increase of B-list characters getting their own movies.