Captain America: Civil War - 14 Theories That Were Utter Bull
7. The Real Mandarin Is Behind Everything
The Rumour: Helmut Zemo is actually just another pawn villain, and the real antagonist manipulating everything behind the scenes is in fact the real Mandarin.
How Much We Believed It: Though the All Hail the King short film made it clear that a real Mandarin (i.e. one not played by Ben Kingsley or Guy Pearce) was out there, this was done more to appease angry fanboys who felt that the Mandarin's depiction in Iron Man 3 was dishonest or insulting.
It's highly unlikely that Marvel Studios would dare roll the dice with the character again when they can move onto one of dozens of other villains. Very hard to buy into indeed. 1/10
The Truth: The Mandarin and the Ten Rings weren't mentioned or hinted at in any way. Not a huge surprise.