Guess who will be playing the villain in Iron Man 3…

Prepare yourself for some pretty awesome news.

It was hinted before that the Mandarin would be the main villain for IRON MAN 3 back when Jon Favreau was still slated to direct. This is what he said about the baddie back in 2010, “You have to do The Mandarin,” he said. “The problem with The Mandarin is, the way it’s depicted in the comic books, you don’t want to see that. He also has 10 magical rings, and it just doesn’t feel right for our thing, so it’s either tech-based or the rings are not really rings.”

Well, the downside is that it looks like they won’t be using the Mandarin. The good news is that Sir Ben Kinglsey is in final talks to take on the villainous role. Apparently Kinglsey’s character would be, “involved in the spread of a virus through nanobots, given that “Iron Man 3” is loosely based on Warren Ellis’ six-issue “Extremis” comicbook series first published in 2005. That arc — which also heavily influenced the first “Iron Man” pic — introduced a new origin story and focused heavily on nanotechnology.”

I always saw the “Extremis” comic at the library, but never picked it up. Warren Ellis is a damn good writer in my book so I’m sure it was a pretty interesting storyline. Despite the Mandarin not getting his time to shine, I think writer/director Shane Black will have something good for us. Production on IRON MAN 3 starts in May.

What do we think of this news?

Source: Variety

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