3. Colonel Kurtz Inspiration
One of my favourite films happens to be Apocalypse Now, and my second favourite actor happens to be Marlon Brando, who had a great little role in the film. He somewhat difficulty but with full talent played Colonel Kurtz, the primary protagonist, a high-ranking military official who went insane and became a warlord. When I happened upon the news that the Mandarin would be less a magical mastermind and more a resemblance of Kurtz, I became well and truly excited about this film. Kurtz is the epitomizing symbol of military insanity for me, and the rumour mill has been churning a story of the Mandarin as an intelligence officer of some sort who became disillusioned with what he saw and went upon his own conquest. The character has been described by various sources including Ben Kingsley as believing that what hes doing is right. He considers himself a teacher, as we hear in the first trailer. Stark however, believes that hes a maniac. Simple as. Nonetheless, any character inspired by Kurtz has my eyebrows raised, and should have yours risen too.