10 Comic Book Adaptations That Messed Up Iconic Stories
4. Iron Man 3
The trilogy finale of The Iron Man saga is by no means a bad film and was a juggernaut at the box office to boot. It's one particular plot twist however that irked comic book fans to no end.
The marketing of the movie strongly suggested that Iron Man's arch rival The Mandarin would finally be the chief villain of an Iron Man movie, with Ben Kingsley stepping into the role. His presence was even hinted at before this, with the ten rings organisation making an appearance in the very first Iron Man flick. This seemed the most opportune and perhaps final chance to finally have Tony Stark meet his comic book nemesis.
But, turns out, Kingsley was just portraying a Mandarin impostor, and the alien ring sporting villain wasn't in the film at all. The film instead presented the Extremis comic book arc, but with Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian as the main bad guy - a character who was swiftly killed off in the comics and wasn't an antagonist at all.
The Mandarin is still set to appear in the MCU, in the upcoming Shang-Chi, however, with Robert Downey Jr.'s time as Iron Man at an end, it does seem a missed opportunity that Iron Man 3 didn't bring him to the big screen earlier and adapt one the many great Iron Man Vs Mandarin tales.