Will The Mandarin Be The Villain In 'Iron Man 3'?

I'm surprised only a handful of people have pointed out that the first movie mentions 'The Ten Rings', which was an obvious nod to Mandarin.

As ALL the Marvel and DC movies lately have shown us, the characters in the films don't LITERALLY have to be what you've seen in the comic. The Ten Rings terrorists originally kidnapped Stark because they wanted his weaponry. It would seem to make a whole lot of sense that, since they caused the situation that basically created Iron Man, and that Iron Man took out one of their cells in the first movie, that they would go after Stark again and want his armor. Or that they would have made knock-off armor after seeing what Stark did. And you know, no one actually calls Whiplash, 'Whiplash' in IM2. Or Hulk, 'Hulk'. Its just a matter of, "This is the leader of the Ten Rings, Zhang Tong". Then maybe some dude speaks proper Chinese to him and he says, "Sorry, I only speak Mandarin" or something silly like that.

If Shane Black can't see how this would work, then he's a fool.

Well, the Chinese don't go for Chinese villains in an American movie. They did ban the Dark Knight in China theaters after all due to Batman going to Hong Kong to get that Chinese guy and bring him back to the states. Oops - - painting China/Chinese in a bad light? A big no-no! I was surprised they allowed The Mummy 3 to be shown here with Jet Li as the villain.

So, yeah, if the Mandarin is a non-Chinese character, then it might be received better. BTW, all these big powerhouse superhero movies (except, well, that one Batman movie) are HUGE hits over here - - Iron Man especially as he is sort of a Manga-ish kind of character with his ever-changing arsenal of armor. Captain America didn't go over especially well here. Wonder why? :)

@JMLG said:

wouldnt be right if Iron Man movie franchise wouldnt have Mandarin in it, so im down

Who says the Iron man franchise has to be a trilogy?

Personally I don't mind Mandarin but I'd rather see Extremis.

- Just saw that Iron Man 3 will be co-produced with China on a CNN by-line (they have lots of free cash for financing) if this is accurate it speaks volumes.

- With this known I really do not see Mandarin as the villain, China is really defensive about their image and with this financing arrangement they will have significant say on the direction of the film.

I would love to see Mandarin in this movie!

This seems rather odd on all levels. Why bother going all the way to China to film the next movie? Financially, that just doesn't make sense to me. Is Disney/Marvel that desperate to get more money from the world at large? Yet as others point out, making the villain Chinese won't exactly appeal to the Chinese government! It makes me scratch my head on this one.

Not too keen on the possibility of Mandarin as a villain.

@MrMazz said:

Well Mandarin would get around the whole every villian develops a suit of armor problem they have had.

I was kind of hoping for redux of Madame Masque make her some sorta terrorist or something.

That Actually would have been really awesome considering Black Widow and Scarlett Johanson have been confirmed for Iron Man 3 it would have given a good dynamic with the Techno-terrorist angle. But It would have been really smart to also have the Mandarin, working in consort with Masque. That way there would have been two climatic battles and we could see more action and examples of the tech the Widow would be using and some of tony starks more creative armours and inventions.

@Decept-O said:

as others point out, making the villain Chinese won't exactly appeal to the Chinese government! It makes me scratch my head on this one.

LOL yeah, make the villain chinese...smart move Disney

A little magic aspect, especially after Avengers movie, can do Iron Man good. Mandarin is one of the most iconic ( if not THE Iconic ) Iron Man villian soo seeing him on the movie is a win-win and I would be disappointed if I won't see him.

It may actually beat the plot of how every villian in the movie must come up with a stronger armor than Tony's like in the first 2 movies. Mandarin on the other hand, really do not need one. In fact I am pretty sure he can create his own without a problem but he never really had a need to it.

Hell, I would be estatic if they add Fin Fang Foom to the mix !

@Gambit1024 said:

@cattlebattle said:

Shane Black (whatever the directors name is) stated his lack of interest for the Mandarin character claiming he was outdated and racist....

Yeah, I heard about this too. But then I thought about how Favreu tried to set up for Mandarin in the first Iron Man. It looks like from the very beginning, they've changed the Mandarin completely, making him the leader of what appears to be a Middle Eastern organization called "The Ten Rings." So, if my hope is right, Black took the hint, and shaped him into something new (and in my opinion) better. Or, they're going to do what they did with Whiplash and make him a combination of two villains. Either way, there's not a doubt in my mind that this movie will have Mandarin, in one form or another.

Everyone keeps mentioning the "Ten Rings" from the first movie. I think you have it about right Gambit. Like most movies they change the original to match the current "Threat" to the world. Look at Bourne movies, or James Bond. They are written during one "Crisis" and the movie is changed to match the current world threat. We should also look at how Marvel can and will change the back stories and origins to make it a more enjoyable movie and to again coincide with the current or modern day.

@War Killer said:

I personally would have rather had Living Laser and Spymaster, but eh, we'll see how this turns out.

Replace Living Laser with Ghost and I agree with you.

it probably will be.

@cattlebattle said:

Shane Black (whatever the directors name is) stated his lack of interest for the Mandarin character claiming he was outdated and racist.... This is blatantly Marvel invoking their creative control, no wonder they lose so many directors

For better or worse, (possibly worse based on how most directors react to Marvel's creative control) I'm super cool with any sort of appearance by the Mandarin because HE IS THE BADDEST ASS.

@mickoreo_LZ said:

Seems like you almost have to have Mandarin in an Iron Man film. Its almost like not having Red Skull in a Cap movie, or not having Joker in a Batman film. Just needs to be done

I agree,we are onto the third movie now.Mandarin needs to make an appearance.

I hope so what other villain could be more important

It seems unlikely that the Chinese would WANT to be the villains in a movie being filmed in their country.

With that corny Marvel Supervillain like Whiplash I think Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios better get this Super Awesome Iron Man Supervillain in his third Movie don't you think? P.S. Iron Man 2 sucks really is really do I watched it and it is so horrible unlike Spider-Man 2 who is probably the best Marvel Movie Sequel ever made and Doctor Octopus the best Marvel Supervillain to be selected in a Marvel Movie.

I'm thinking no Mandarin, since they had "The 10 Rings" as the terrorists in the first movie. I'm almost hoping that, since Thor and now the Avengers have introduced the more fantastical elements of the Marvel Universe we might get Fin Fang Foom (assuming he and his ilk aren't the giant snake things in the Avengers promos).

@wmwadeii said:

For some reason when I first read this I didn't think of Mandarin but the movie Outsourced. Basically in outsourced they send US jobs to India where it is 5:1 (5 Indian workers for every 1 American), at the end of the movie they get outsourced to China where it is now 5:1 (5 Chinese workers for every 1 Indian). Therefore by math you can pay 25:1 (25 Chinese to 1 American).

I LOL at Marvel fans who are so obssessed with what stupid villian will show up in the next Iron Man film that not only do they gloss over a concept that was nothing more than Fu Manchu updated to the Red Menace era ,but fail to see the further loss of American jobs by this movie shifting production to China.This is the second Marvel film to base a majority of it's production over to Asia,the first being Jackmans new Wolverine on it's way to Japan.Has Marvel struck a Steve Jobs style deal yet to make all the spinoff merchandise at the super factory/slave labor site as well? Screw Marvel and Downey and everybody involved in this and Jackman and Wolverine as well.Marvel and it's stars should be facing major complaints and boycotts as well over this.Thanks for your post I see it flew totally over the heads of the parent's basement dwelling ilk who posted here.

i hope it is Mandarin! it would be epic...

it would be cool

Mandarin needs to be in Ironman but he also needs a name change