While CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR may indeed have the moniker of CAPTAIN AMERICA at its front, most people who’ve been keeping track know that this entry in the Marvel franchise aims to be much more ambitious than your standard standalone flick. In fact, this film will have almost as many supers in it as the first two AVENGERS films combined. While this is all well and good, a notable concern fans have is that the film will be overcrowded and unfocused. 

One of the many characters stepping up to the plate in CIVIL WAR is Don Cheadle’s Rhodey (a.k.a. War Machine). As great as it’s been seeing Rhodey don the War Machine suit on what’s now been three separate occasions, I’ve been a bit underwhelmed with how he’s been utilized in the MCU so far. All in all, I just feel like he hasn’t been given enough material to work with. Will CIVIL WAR give us a much-needed extra dose of the character? After all, as we’ve seen in the first trailer, at some point, his general well-being seems to be in some kind of peril.

In a recent interview with Superhero Hype last weekend during the Sundance Film Festival, Cheadle said the following regarding the character of Jim Rhodes and his role in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR.

“I never know what it’s going to be and they keep their cards very close to their breast with Marvel. I never know where the character’s going to go, but he’s become more and more and in the next one, you’ll see that what happens to Rhodey is a little bit more intense and pivotal to what happens in the rest of the stories.”

I’m seriously hoping by “pivotal” that Cheadle doesn’t mean the character will be killed off as some sort of motivation for Tony, because that’s where my mind goes at this point. Of course, my gut says no to that right off the bat. In the comics, Rhodey takes over as Iron Man for Stark for some time, and as Cheadle’s Rhodey hasn’t done that yet, it seems a bit premature. But Marvel Studios has never been one to hold the source material sacred, and if there was a character on the chopping block for the next film, I’d say that War Machine is one of a handful of possibilities.

Lastly, what can’t be ignored is the very last part of the comments: “more intense and pivotal to what happens in the rest of the stories.”

Is that last part Cheadle slipping up and revealing that his character will indeed make it past the the big battle in CIVIL WAR? In the context, it’s difficult to tell if Cheadle is referring to past stories or future stories. We’ll have to wait and see.

What do you think of Cheadle’s comments? Do you think this “pivotal” role will, in fact, be the character’s death or something else altogether? Is this something the actor is saying in all seriousness, or is he just playing up the character for the interview? Let us know all your thoughts in the comments down below!

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR hits theaters on May 6, 2016.

SOURCE: Superhero Hype