10 Times The MCU Totally Subverted Expectations
2. The Mandarin Twist
Iron Man 3 is one of the most controversial films in the MCU because it teased an intense villain, then threw a curveball at us and presented someone slightly underwhelming. While Aldrich Killian was a good villain, he was fairly generic and nothing compared to what the Mandarin promised to be.
Ben Kingsley's 'Mandarin' role was nothing more than an actor called Trevor Slattery who posed no threat to Tony at all. In the Extremis comics, Killian is a scientist who kills himself after confessing that he has sold the virus to local terrorists (with the help of Maya Hansen). So when we were told of Extremis' involvement in Iron Man 3, we knew what to expect.
But then Marvel went an entirely different way and Killian ended up being the big bad.