10 Movie Villain Reveals That Were Genuinely Surprising

9. The Mandarin - Iron Man 3

Perhaps the most controversial twist to ever feature in a superhero movie, the reveal that Iron Man 3's Mandarin wasn't actually the film's main villain, and not even a villain at all, but rather a cockney actor hired to take the focus away from the real bad guy, caught everybody off guard.

The twist itself was perhaps too good, being so out of left field that it took everyone a minute to realise just what the hell was happening. When they realised that the reveal wasn't actually a joke and it became clear that one of Iron Man's most iconic enemies was essentially reduced to a gag, both Marvel and director Shane Black received a huge backlash.

While Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian still made for a great supervillain to go toe to toe with Tony Stark, a lot of viewers simply couldn't get over the fact that Marvel squandered one of the hero's biggest enemies.