Marvel’s Shang-Chi: Ben Kingsley Spotted at Premiere

Trevor Slattery lives. Sir Ben Kingsley, the actor behind Slattery in Iron Man 3, was spotted at the red carpet premiere for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Monday night. The appearance of the actor, who hasn’t been in the MCU for eight years, has many fans asking the question: Why has Kingsledy suddenly come out of hibernation?

Once upon a time, Kingsley was billed as The Mandarin, the longtime Iron Man foe that oversaw a villainous radical group called The Ten Rings. As it turns out, the character was only an actor acting on behalf of the real Mandarin. That character, as we now know, is actually Tony Leung’s Wenwu, who is making his live-action debut in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Could this mean Kingsley’s also in the movie?

The official Shang-Chi Twitter account even acknowledge Kingsley’s presence with a quick tweet during the event.

“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,” Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige previously said of the Mandarin and Slattery plot twist. “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.”

Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and produced by Kevin Feige and Jonathan Schwartz, with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, and Charles Newirth serving as executive producers. David Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham wrote the screenplay for the film, which is currently set for release on September 3rd.

What other characters do you think will end up popping up in Shang-Chi? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!