Shang-Chi: The Mandarin won’t be what fans are expecting

Last Updated on August 10, 2021

The Mandarin first appeared in Iron Man 3, but as fans know, the leader of the Ten Rings turned out to be Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), a washed-up actor recruited by Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). The twist has its fair share of supporters and detractors, but fans have been hoping for an appearance from the "real" Mandarin for nearly a decade. At long last, The Mandarin will be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, but once again, the character won't be exactly what fans are expecting.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will feature Tony Leung as Wenwu, aka The Mandarin, the father of Shang-Chi (Simi Liu). While speaking with Empire, Shang-Chi co-writer Dave Callaham teased that this version of the character will be more than meets the eye.

Our version of the character is not The Mandarin in the way that people are expecting him to be. The Mandarin is a title that has been applied to him in the past by people that don’t understand his culture. But he’s a much deeper character than I think a lot of people would expect.

As the original comic-book version of The Mandarin can be seen as something of a racist caricature, it was important for Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton to keep that in mind when developing this new version of the character. "It was for me the part of the Shang-Chi comics that I personally really connected to," Cretton said. "It was really important for us to find the root of that anger and that pain. That was the goal from the get-go, and probably the number one fear of all of us was creating a Mandarin that was further contributing to the ‘Yellow Peril’ type of stereotypes that are still flying around."

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, a skilled martial artist who was trained at a young age to be an assassin by his father Wenwu, only to depart to live a normal life in San Francisco. However, he must confront the past he thought he had left behind when he's drawn back into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization. In addition to Simu Liu, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings also stars Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy, and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan. Destin Daniel Cretton directed the film and co-wrote the script with Andrew Lanham and David Callaham. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will hit theaters on September 3, 2021.