20 Movie Characters Completely Different From Their Source Material

When bringing to life a super hero on the big screen, one of the many, many things to consider is when to pit them against their greatest ever foe. Captain America (Chris Evans) crossed swords with Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) immediately in The First Avenger, while Heath Ledger's Joker was saved for Christopher Nolan's Batman sequel. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) didn't face his until Iron Man 3.

After seeing off Obadiah Stane, Ivan Vanko, and Loki (Jeff Bridges, Mickey Rourke, and Tom Hiddleston), the MCU's first hero was finally put on a collision course with The Mandarin, and it couldn't have been further from what anybody was expecting.

Ben Kingsley seemed a perfect casting for the maniacal terrorist threat, and the character seemed to track well with what could have been expected based on his comic appearances. However, the reveal that The Mandarin was nothing but a ruse by Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian, designed to stay anonymous, pulled the rug out from everybody, whether they were aware of the character's past or not.

Expectations were subverted and then some here, and the twist was largely hated. So much so that the real Mandarin (Tony Leung) has since been introduced in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, while Slattery has amazingly reappeared in the All Hail the King short, Shang-Chi, and the upcoming Wonder Man series.