When the first moviegoers went into IRON MAN 3 back in 2013 they were expecting to see Ben Kingsley bring the classic Marvel baddie, the Mandarin, to life for the first time on screen. But we were all thrown for a loop when it turned out it was all a ploy, with Kingsley actually being an actor named Trevor Slattery, hired to play the Mandarin by Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). But now with SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS on the way audiences will finally get to see the real Mandarin, and IM3 writer Drew Pearce is excited to see it happen.
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The writer has been on the promotional tour for the movie HOBBS & SHAW (which he co-wrote with Chris Morgan), and spoke with CinemaBlend about the villain being incorporated into the MCU, and how the fact he’s brought to life by an Asian actor (Tony Leung) and Asian filmmakers is of significant importance.
You know, and there are modern interpretations of The Mandarin that I think can work in the context of, particularly of a Marvel movie that has a much more grounded basis in Asian culture and has, frankly, Asian filmmakers and other Asian actors in its ensemble, and driving the story. In our Iron Man movie, as you and everyone else knows, it was my feeling that if we did The Mandarin in many of the forms that he is most commonly known as we were playing into the racial stereotypes that generated the character in the beginning.
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After IRON MAN 3 hit theaters Pearce came back to direct and write the Marvel One-Shot, ALL HAIL THE KING, in which Slattery was living it up in prison. All of a sudden, he's confronted by Jackson Norriss (Scoot McNairy) who reveals the Mandarin is indeed real, and he's looking to speak with Slattery. Even though the ALL HAIL THE KING short came out years ago, Marvel Studios president said back in May that they still had plans to use the real Mandarin down the road, and only two months later while at Comic-Con he was announced as the villain for SHANG-CHI.
Pearce may not know a lot about the upcoming SHANG-CHI, but he says that after talking with some friends at Marvel he feels like "everything will be revealed and nothing is being retconned." Does this mean we will find out what happened to Slattery? Was he given a new man cave to live out his days in while watching football on the TV?
Director Destin Daniel Cretton (SHORT TERM 12) was hired to tackle the project with a script from David Callaham (WONDER WOMAN 1984) and at Comic-Con last month actors Leung and Awkwafina were announced for the cast, with Simu Liu brought on stage as the title hero.
SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS is in theaters February 12, 2021.