MCU: 10 Things You Learn Rewatching Iron Man 3

9. The Mandarin Twist Is Not A Big Deal

iron man 3 ben kingsley mandarin
Marvel Studios

Iron Man fans have long been familiar with the problematic connotations surrounding the Mandarin. His initial incarnation amounted to little more than a racist stereotype of an Asian man, a character of the Fu Manchu age that really had no business being a Marvel Comics character.

When it came to actually casting the role proper, Marvel Studios looked to Ben Kingsley, an Anglo-Indian actor who's specialised in villainous roles throughout his career. He sounded threatening right from the start, and naturally people began to invest in Kingsley's portrayal. When it later transpired, however, that Kingsley's character wasn't the Mandarin - and that he was just an actor called Trevor Slattery - some fans were not happy at all.

The fact that this twist has doomed the film to so many is (and let's be blunt), frankly absurd. Black subverted everyone's expectations and, in doing so, provoked a Last Jedi-esque backlash wherein fans were chagrinned to see their fan theories rubbished by the time the film released.

Back then and even now the backlash just seemed completely unwarranted. Guy Pearce's Killian is a thoroughly unsettling villain, and in fitting the theme of Tony's past coming to haunt him, he's also the more appropriate.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.