10 Movies That Broke Promises To Fans

10. The Mandarin Will Get A Faithful Adaptation - Iron Man 3

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has made an art out of toying with audiences, of upending their expectations in ways that, more often than not, are hugely satisfying.

Marvel Studios routinely misrepresents trailer footage or even cooks up false scenes to throw fans off the scent, though this deceptive mindset backfired rather spectacularly in Iron Man 3.

All the pre-release marketing hyped up Ben Kingsley's presence as Iron Man's fan favourite foe The Mandarin, suggesting a mostly comic-accurate portrayal of the character, aided by director Shane Black and Kingsley both championing him as Tony Stark's most feared enemy yet.

But of course, the film's big twist was that Kingsley was really playing an actor named Trevor Slattery who was hired by the "real" Mandarin, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), to play a decoy Mandarin and, ironically, throw everyone off his own trail.

This was a case of Black and co-writer Drew Pearce trying to be a little too clever for their own good, given that many fans genuinely wanted to see a faithful depiction of The Mandarin on-screen rather than a cutesy subversion.

The backlash was significant enough that Marvel Studios eventually commissioned a One-Shot short, All Hail the King, which effectively retconned the existence of a third, definitely real Mandarin, who will be played by Tony Leung in the upcoming Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.