Marvel’s Shang-Chi Producer Says an Iron Man Movie Couldn’t Do “Justice” to the Mandarin

Since the first Iron Man movie in 2008 Marvel fans were waiting on The Mandarin to make his debut in the MCU, and the version of the character that appeared in 2013’s Iron Man 3 didn’t live up to some fan’s expectations though. As a result a new version of the classic villain is set to appear in the upcoming Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the allure of a “Real Mandarin” having been teased in the 2014 short All Hail the King. Speaking in a new interview, Marvel head Kevin Feige opens up about their decision to go down this path in the film saying that the version of The Mandarin they’re bringing to the big screen now couldn’t have been done before.

“Well that’s what’s fun about the MCU at this stage is that we can do something like Shang-Chi, introducing a brand new hero into the MCU and into the world at large, but that subtitle “And 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,” Feige told Rotten Tomatoes. “That organization was inspired by a character called The Mandarin in the comics and going back to Iron Man 1 we’ve been talking about ‘When do we bring this character to the screen?’ and 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, it’s about Tony Stark.”

He continued, “So 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. Again, talking about actors making these characters come to life, Tony Leung playing Shang-Chi’s father and the leader of the Ten Rings is another pinch yourself, dream come true moment, because he’s one of the best actors of our time. Very excited to have him introduced to, I hope, a whole new fan base who might not be aware of his spectacular work that he’s done.”

Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization, led by his father Wenwu (Tony Leung), also known as the Mandarin. The cast also includes Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan and Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu, and Ronny Chieng.

The film opens in theaters on September 3rd.