20 Things You Didn’t Know About Iron Man 2
6. The Ten Rings Secretly Appear In The Movie
During the scripting stage, The Mandarin was in consideration to be the movie's main villain, yet he was ultimately ditched amid fears that he might be too ridiculous.
A prophetic assertion, then, considering what controversially happened with the villain in Iron Man 3.
However, The Mandarin's villainous outfit The Ten Rings were nevertheless covertly featured briefly in Iron Man 2 in the first act of the movie. In order to travel to Monaco, Ivan Vanko requires forged papers, which are handed to him by an unidentified Asian man.
Jon Favreau has since confirmed that this man is in fact a member of the Ten Rings, implying that The Mandarin was plotting Tony Stark's demise long before their confrontation in the next movie.