Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes has undergone many changes in the MCU. He was played by Terrence Howard in Iron Man (2008) and then replaced by Don Cheadle for all subsequent films. He went from military man to superhero over the course of a decade and went from supporting character to crucial player within the larger Infinity Stone saga.
Rhodey is still going strong. He’s one of the familiar faces who has popped up on the Disney Plus show Secret Invasion, and while it was nice to see him at first, something seemed off. Fans picked up on the fact that Rhodey was acting strange and, given the show’s involvement with shape-shifters, began to theorize that Rhodey could actually be a Skrull in disguise.
Fans got their answer in Secret Invasion episode 4. A crucial scene shows Nick Fury listening to a phone call between his wife, Priscilla (Charlayne Woodard), and Rhodey. Things seem ordinary enough until he discovers that the Colonel has ordered a hit on his life. At that moment, Fury has two devastating realizations: Priscilla is a Skrull, and so is Rhodey. The latter has been replaced by a Skrull named Raava (Nisha Aaliya).
The scene that follows helps to confirm the Skrull theory. Rhodey has a tense conversation with Fury in person and is so intent on messing with the former S.H.I.E.L.D. commander that he doesn’t realize he’d been given a tracking device. Fury can thus prevent an attempt to assassinate the President (Dermot Mulroney). Talk about a whirlwind of events and emotions in a small time period.
The decision to make Rhodey a Skrull was bold and clever, given the lack of precedent in the comic books. There have been tons of instances of superheroes being replaced by Skrulls in the source material, but there’s never been an instance where Rhodey, the War Machine himself, was body scratched. Consequently, fans ruled the character out as a possible threat heading into Secret Invasion.
Kevin Feige was aware of this discrepancy and decided to use it to his advantage. During a recent interview with Marvel.com, the Marvel President elaborated on his desire to misdirect the audience. “We needed to have a character that one would not expect to be a Skrull,” Feige explained. “Don was on board for this reveal of playing and revealing another side of Rhodey and revealing that, yeah, Rhodey has been a Skrull. It was very early days when we pitched this concept to Don, and he was into it and into being able to play with different sides of Rhodey that we haven’t seen before.”
He’s got a point. Cheadle has brought an understated charisma to Rhodey in the past, but he’s generally functioned as a straight man to his more outlandish peers. Playing Rhodey as Skrull is a novel way of keeping the character fresh, and Cheadle is more than up to the challenge. The Oscar nominee has proven how unpredictable he can be in Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) and how chilling he can be in Out of Sight (1998). We can’t wait to see where Rhodey goes next.