8 More Movie Fan Theories Confirmed By The Creators

3. There Is A Third, Real Mandarin - Iron Man 3

The Theory: Iron Man 3's shocking revelation, that Ben Kingsley's Mandarin was merely an actor paid to steer suspicion away from the "real" Mandarin, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), is one of the most controversial plot twists of any major movie from the last five-or-so years.

However, despite Killian's aggressive claim to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) that he is the real Mandarin, frustrated fans quickly established their own head-canon, that another, third Mandarin was actually out in the world somewhere.

Above all else, it was an easy way for fans to comfort themselves over what they saw as the unforgivable slighting of an iconic Marvel supervillain.

The Confirmation: The vitriol for Iron Man 3's big twist was so volatile that Marvel actually commissioned the film's co-writer, Drew Pearce, to write and direct a short film effectively ret-conning the status of the Mandarin in the movie.

The 2014 short, All Hail the King, sees Kingsley's Trevor Slattery about to be broken out of prison to meet the actual Mandarin, who would presumably adhere far more stringently to the classic - and honestly, quite racist - comic book conception of the character.