Shang-Chi also affords Marvel Studios a second go, of sorts, at another storied villain: The Mandarin. The character, which was teased in Iron Man 3 but who, in that film, turned out to be bumbling actor-for-hire Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) – much to some fans’ chagrin – will make a proper debut in the upcoming solo film.
“That’s what’s fun about the MCU at this stage,” Feige told Rotten Tomatoes. “We can do something like Shang-Chi, introducing a brand new hero into the MCU and into the world at large. But that subtitle, The Legend of the Ten Rings, actually connects it back to the very beginning of the MCU, the Ten Rings being the organization that kidnapped Tony Stark at the very beginning of Iron Man one. And that organization was inspired by a character called the Mandarin in the comics.”
“And going back to Iron Man one: We’ve been talking about that when we do bring this character to the screen, [we] only wanted to do it when we felt we could do it supreme justice and really showcase the complexity of this character, which frankly we couldn’t do in an Iron Man movie because an Iron Man movie is about Iron Man; an Iron Man movie is about Tony Stark. So [Iron Man 3 director] Shane Black, in his film and his script that he co-wrote, came up with this fun twist that we love to this day, and it turned out to be Trevor Slattery. Just because that version wasn’t real didn’t mean there’s not a leader of the Ten Rings organization, and that is who we meet for the first time in Shang-Chi.”