10 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About The MCU
6. Aldrich Killian Is The MCU's Mandarin
Iron Man 3's handling of iconic comic book villain The Mandarin was controversial to say the least. First they led the fans to believe Ben Kingsley was playing the baddie, only for it to transpire that his character was merely a smokescreen for Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian, the film's "real" Mandarin.
What Marvel essentially did was roll two characters from the source material into one and hid the results behind a washed-up Cockney actor called Trevor Slattery.
Some found it funny, others were incensed by this subversive take on Iron Man's arch-nemesis, but what many people don't realise is that Aldrich Killian isn't the Marvel Cinematic Universe's genuine Mandarin either.
Marvel established this in the One-Shot All Hail the King, which revealed that the real leader of the Ten Rings organisation is at large in the MCU, and he's miffed with Slattery for using his name.
Of course, this was more of an olive branch to the fans than confirmation that The Mandarin is on his way to a future MCU movie, but canonically speaking both Killian and Slattery are faux Mandarins.