Superhero movies have always been the subject of anticipation and rumors, particularly regarding their recognizable villains. Iron Man, the ground-breaking Marvel movie starring Robert Downey Jr. that introduced the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), was no exception. Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), the movie’s main antagonist, played a memorable part, but little did we know about the original plan to also include the Mandarin. He is one of Iron Man’s most formidable foes.
The movie, however, escaped his presence. The Mandarin was eventually cut from Jon Favreau’s 2008 film due to having too many villains in light of the criticism that the two previous films had received at the time. He is a Chinese supervillain in Marvel Comics who has appeared in a variety of media. Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce, respectively, played Mandarin’s impostor and real role in Iron Man 3 (2013).
The Original Vision: The Mandarin as Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man’s Third Villain
According to the Marvel Studio Spoilers on Reddit, the Mandarin was originally intended by the makers of Robert Downey Jr.‘s Iron Man to be one of the antagonists in the 2008 movie. However, this plan was ultimately abandoned out of concern for not making the same mistakes as X-Men: The Last Stand and Spider-Man 3. The presence of so many villains in these Marvel movies has drawn criticism.
The last scene written for Iron Man—in which Tony Stark tricked Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) into icing his armor—was submitted just before the 2007 WGA strike. As per the spoilers, the movie’s
“Final explosion was so large, it accidentally fried $180k worth of lights and drew the attention of the LAPD.”
Even though Mandarin’s inclusion in Iron Man was scrapped by the MCU, the desire for him to exist in the universe persisted. Eventually, Marvel Studios used the character in Iron Man 3 as part of a significant fakeout.
Iron Man 3 Director Said ‘Real’ Mandarin Was Marvel’s Apology to Fans
The director of Iron Man 3, Shane Black, claimed that the 2014 Marvel direct-to-video short All Hail the King was a response to that film. The director, 61, addressed the issue of Iron Man 3‘s unfavorable online reviews with Uproxx‘s Mike Ryan.
“Marvel saw so many negative things they made a whole other movie just to apologize called [sic] Hail to the King. In which they said, ‘No, no, the Mandarin is still alive. That wasn’t him. There’s a real Mandarin.”
The Nice Guys director went on to say that the only reason it was created was to apologize to the upset fans. Marvel did not anticipate criticism of how the character was portrayed in Iron Man 3; in fact, the production company believed that fans would “eat it up”.
“It never occurred to us the Mandarin is as iconic to people as, say, the Joker in Batman. [Fans] just wanted to see the magic rings shoot lasers.”
Black also added that a female villain also appeared in an “early draft” of the movie. Marvel executives specifically informed the director that the villain could not be a woman because
“After consulting, [they] decided that toy will not sell as well if it is a female.”
Although there was criticism of the Mandarin character, Iron Man 3 received positive reviews from critics who praised the action scenes, Black’s direction, and Downey Jr.’s performance. The 2013 film was a box office hit, earning more than $1.2 billion globally, making it the second-highest-grossing movie of that year.
Iron Man films are streaming on Disney Plus.
