10 Surprising MCU Phase 4 Decisions No One Saw Coming

10. Bringing Back The Mandarin

When The Mandarin was introduced in the Iron Man comic books, he was the very definition of a character created to reflect the time's "yellow peril" attitude about Asian characters. As a result, no one was really shocked when Sir Ben Kingsley was cast to play a reimagined version of the villain in 2013's Iron Man 3.

What no one saw coming was that he was actually an English actor called Trevor just posing as the leader of the Ten Rings! Later, Marvel Studios would go into damage control mode by revealing that there was a real Mandarin, and we now know that we'll meet him in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (where he'll be played by Tony Leung).

This is a legitimate surprise considering some of the negative connotations surrounding the character, but with a primarily Asian cast and a diverse creative team behind the scenes, the studio clearly feels comfortable taking another crack at this villain. The question is, will he wield those alien rings of his? Well, if certain plot leaks are to be believed, yes!