Iron Man 3’s Main Villain Was Not The Mandarin
It might be unfair to call the trailer for Iron Man 3 misleading, as the marketing team couldn’t really spoil the big surprise in the previews, but I do think that it was slightly deceiving, as was the film itself.
As we all now by know, Ben Kingsley’s Mandarin was touted as the big bad for Iron Man 3, despite his character being just an English actor playing the part. Instead, Aldrich Killian is the real Mandarin and simply hired Kingsley’s character, Trevor, to act as a mouthpiece. It was a total letdown, especially after so much build up, and quite frankly, it put a damper on an otherwise excellent film.
Again, it’s hard to blame the trailer for presenting Kingsley as the main antagonist, but Marvel fans looking forward to seeing the Mandarin go head-to-head with Tony Stark were no doubt quite upset when they found out they’d been duped. It also felt like a massive cheap shot to a beloved comic book character.