Captain America: Civil War — Is War Machine going to die?

Lost amid the Spider-Man hysteria in the new Captain America: Civil War trailer is the fact that things look increasingly grim for James “Rhodey” Rhodes, better known as War Machine.

Any time there’s a superhero Civil War, someone pays the price. In the comics, it was Bill Foster, a relatively obscure hero who was one of the men to use the code name Goliath. Captain America “died” as well (it’s complicated), but not until after the series was over. That’s led many fans to suspect that maybe Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers would meet his maker, but it’s increasingly looking like if someone dies, it’s going to be War Machine.

Marvel has shown off still images and clips of Tony Stark tending to a downed Rhodey prior to today, but the second full Captain America: Civil War trailer actually shows how that happens. He’s shot down by the Winter Soldier, which would make the conflict as personal for Tony as it is for Steve, given that saving Bucky is still an important item on Cap’s personal agenda.

Later in the trailer comes the full-on group clash between Team Captain America and Team Iron Man (yes, the one where a certain wall-crawler introduces himself to the combatants), and War Machine is present for that. It’s important to remember, though, that scenes in movie trailers are often shown out of chronological order for dramatic purposes. So just because Rhodey is still flying around later in the trailer doesn’t mean he’s still alive at the end of the movie.

It’s always seemed a bit odd to have a critically acclaimed actor like Don Cheadle playing a wingman like War Machine, though it also speaks to how all kinds of people want to be involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Though he wasn’t a focus by any means, Rhodey had some of his best moments on film in Avengers: Age of Ultron, where he got to show off more of his personality.

That would make it a shame if he’s the one who doesn’t make it out of this Civil War. I could simply be overreacting based on this trailer, but I hope I’m not back here writing an “R.I.P., War Machine” post a few months from now.