Today's Hot Trailer: The Mandarin Offers Tony Stark a Choice in Latest Iron Man 3 Trailer
Posted 03.05.13 by Ryan
"You'll never see me coming."
"One of the joys for me has always been seeing how you take a villain from the comic book and realize him in a slightly more realistic way for the movie, render him for movies in a way that’s recognizable, but different," co-writer and director Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) recently told Collider about the character of The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) in the highly-anticipated sequel Iron Man 3. The Mandarin was not only the highlight of the sequel's first trailer but also the latest trailer, where the villain offers a sleepless Tony Stark, aka Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), a choice between "an empty life or a meaningful death." Yikes.
Created by Stan Lee and artist Don Heck, The Mandarin has been plauging Iron Man in the comic books since 1964, albeit in a more stereotypical incarnation. "The fans love this character The Mandarin and we just said, 'Well, what we don’t want is this potentially racist, stereotype of a Fu Manchu villain just waving his fist,'" Black continued. "But we found a way, I think, to get an iteration of The Mandarin that we like. We got very excited about bout having cracked this story when we found out that we could include The Mandarin and give him a character that would be a perfect match, the ultimate Iron Man villain, but without relying too heavily on what the comic book stereotype was."
From the looks of the new trailer, Black has certainly pulled off a menacing new version of The Mandarin, outside of the comic book's version of the character, but still effective.
Iron Man 3 was is loosely based on comic book writer Warren Ellis' Extremis storyline from the Iron Man comic books and co-adapted by screenwriter Drew Pearce. Don Cheadle returns as James "Rhodey" Rhodes/War Machine, as does Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts. Franchise newcomers include Rebecca Hall as Dr. Maya Hansen and Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian.
Next Showing: Iron Man 3 opens May 3rd