10 Hyped Movie Villains Who Turned Out To Be Just Henchmen

Who else could it be? Iron Man 3's The Mandarin is the most controversial antagonist a comic-book movie has ever produced, with many people applauding the riskiness and subversiveness of the character's twist, and others condemning it as silly, and disrespectful to the source material.

Before the release of Iron Man 3, Ben Kingsley was cast as The Mandarin, who, in the comics, is a Chinese martial artist and genius scientist. Kingsley seemed like a good fit for the character, and the movie's trailers painted him as a ruthless anarchist who would give Tony Stark a real run for his money.

But midway through the movie, a twist revealed that Kingsley's Mandarin was just a ruse. Aldrich Killian needed someone to take credit for the explosions caused by the Extremis virus, and so created The Mandarin as a decoy to draw the attention of the authorities.

Kingsley was actually playing a British actor called Trevor Slattery, a revelation that turned Iron Man 3 on its head. Slattery was working for Killian - who later claimed to be the real Mandarin - meaning that not one bit of that menacing character we saw in the trailers was real.

Needless to say, this twist caused quite a stir among MCU fans, and it quickly became cinematic Marmite - you either loved it, or hated it.

But whichever side of the coin you fall on, it can't be denied that it would have been extremely interesting to watch the rest of the film play out with Kingsley as the version of The Mandarin we were all lead to believe he was playing.