Dead
The Mandarin has been one of Iron Man’s most powerful opponents, wielding magical powers and scientific know-how, so it’s been a bit strange that we haven’t seen him in an Iron Man movie yet. Well next May, we will see the man(darin) brought to life by Ben Kingsley.
Back in April, Sir Kingsley got into talks to be in Iron Man 3 from Shane Black, director of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and screenwriter of Lethal Weapon and Last Action Hero. Today it was confirmed that Kingsley would be starring as the Mandarin, but he would not be the main villain. He will be more of a background character, “a veiled threat as a silent partner” to Iron Man 3‘s main villain Aldrich Killian, who will be played by Guy Pearce. In the comics, Killian is a scientist who created a serum called Extremis that gave people superpowers. He gave that serum to a terrorist group in the Iron Man story arc Extremis.
Not really what I was expecting from the Mandarin. I personally don’t read Iron Man but I always thought that Mandarin was more of an upfront kind of supervillain, not so much a behind-the-scenes type guy. Also, it doesn’t mention whether he will have his rings or not.
In the comics, Mandarin gets most of his powers from the Makluan rings. They are ten rings, each with a different power, that Mandarin wears on all his fingers. The first Iron Man had a terrorist group called “The Ten Rings”, who were the ones who kidnapped Tony Stark, but it isn’t know for sure if the Mandarin is affiliated with them or not. But Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige did say that they would be bringing an aspect of that first movie back in some way.
“Metaphorically, we’re not going back to the cave there’s nothing like that, but we’ve always said let’s get Tony back to the cave, which is he’s stripped of everything, he’s backed up against a wall, and he’s gotta use his intelligence to get out of it.”
Iron Man 3 is scheduled for release on May 3rd, 2013.
Ben Kingsley, why did it have to be Ben Kingsley?