War Machine Storms the Internet
Slash Film has unearthed a largely overlooked cache of concept artwork from this past summer’s Iron Man movie. Artist Phil Saunders was commissioned to create official designs of for three separate armors originally slated to appear in the film.
According to Saunders, the designs were "three images I did at the very end of production as alternate suit designs that would have been in a Hall of Armor coda at the end of the film."
Of the War Machine armor pictured right, Saunders says: "I spent a lot of time on developing this suit, which was of course cut from the script about half way through pre-production. Originally it was going to be called the MK IV armor and would have been weaponized swap-out parts that would be worn over the original MK III armor. Earlier versions were red and gold, and would have ben worn by Tony Stark in the final battle sequence."
Saunders is quick to note that if War Machine appears in Iron Man 2, "it’s unlikely to be this one." As many fans are now aware, the man who would wear the War Machine armor is also different than the man in Iron Man. Terrence Howard, who portrayed Jim Rhodes in the first film, will be replaced by Don Cheadle in the sequel.
In addition to the War Machine armor, Saunders presents two other armors: an aquatic suit and a stealth suit. The stealth suit design attempts at "suggesting ‘stealth’ technology in the surface treatment of the suit, [and was] ultimately abandoned as not being classic enough." The aquatic armor design represents an underwater suit requested by Avi Arad for licensing and merchandising purposes.
"Needless to say," says Saunders, "the underwater suit never saw the light of days, but in homage to Avi, I drew this one up as a possible addition to [Tony’s] hall of armor."
Head over to Slash Film to check out the unused stealth and aquatic armor designs.
