Agents Of SHIELD: 15 MCU Characters Who Realistically Could Still Appear

2. The Real Mandarin

Love or hate the Mandarin twist in Iron Man 3, it's now canon in the MCU that the real Mandarin is out there, quite displeased that Trevor Slattery and Aldrich Killian adopted his name. As of the Marvel One-Shot All Hail the King, Trevor's been busted out of prison and away from his star status by the real Ten Rings to face the consequences and answer to the Mandarin. Since a fourth Iron Man film is seemingly off the table for years to come, it's highly doubtful that Stark will be facing off against the ring-wielding foe like fans were expecting in the third film. And unless Marvel plans to carry over the Ten Rings and the Mandarin over to the Doctor Strange franchise, the dangerous villain's cinematic story could quite easily end with this One-Shot. However, considering how dangerous the man and his organisation can truly be, setting him up for a villainous arc in a future season of the show would be cool. In a post-Ultron world, the Mandarin could attempt to take advantage of a world upside down, with Coulson's new SHIELD, armed with the assistance of Inhumans like Skye/Daisy, ready to take him and the Ten Rings on. Not only would his presence serve to continue moving the series beyond HYDRA-related threats, but it would give the team a huge rising antagonist to cope with that could truly test their collective strength. Explaining away the Trevor/Killian issue would be far easier to do on television than trying to hurriedly introduce the concept in a future film. If Marvel could stage another casting coup like they did with Bill Paxton in season one or Kyle MacLachlan in the current season, the real Mandarin could easily become one of the MCU's best, most dangerous villains.