Iron Man 3 Director Defends Mandarin Twist

In spite of the fact that many comic book fans have been pretty upset about changes made to the character of The Mandarin in Iron Man 3, the film has done pretty well with critics and mainstream audiences. Kingsley's portrayal has gotten generally high marks, and while some fans are pretty enraged about it, Iron Man 3 director Shane Black explained in a recent interview that he stands by the changes, and the reasons he had for making them. "I would say that we struggled to find a way to present a mythic terrorist that had something about him that registered after the movie's over as having been a unique take, or a clever idea, or a way to say something of use," Black told ScreenRant. "And what was of use about the Mandarin's portrayal in this movie, to me, is that it offers up a way that you can sort of show how people are complicit in being frightened. They buy into things in the way that the audience for this movie buys into it. And hopefully, by the end you're like, 'Yeah, we were really frightened of the Mandarin, but in the end he really wasn't that bad after all.' In fact, the whole thing was just a product of this anonymous, behind-the-scenes guy. I think that's a message that's more interesting for the modern world because I think there's a lot of behind-the-scenes, a lot of fear, that's generated toward very available and obvious targets, which could perhaps be directed more intelligently at what's behind them."