'Wonder Man' Fixes Marvel's 'Iron Man 3' Mandarin Plot Twist
Movieweb reports that Wonder Man addresses the controversial Mandarin twist from Iron Man 3, which revealed Ben Kingsley’s character as actor Trevor Slattery, a decoy hired by Aldrich Killian; while the twist played well with casual viewers, long-time comic readers felt betrayed.
Marvel later tried to correct the portrayal in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings by introducing Tony Leung’s Xu Wenwu as the MCU’s real Mandarin, but the name had been tarnished by Kingsley’s portrayal, Wenwu never faced Iron Man, and casual viewers still might not recognize him as the infamous villain.
Wonder Man brings Kingsley back as Trevor and gives him a redemptive arc: Trevor befriends Simon, poses as the Mandarin to take credit for a studio explosion to protect Simon, and ends up in prison, allowing the Mandarin persona to carry emotional weight in the MCU and reversing the original joke.