First Look at Ben Kingsley in Marvel Short 'All Hail the King'

The curtain has now been lifted on Marvel's somewhat-secret Marvel One Shot, titled All Hail the King, and as many predicted it is indeed the film Ben Kingsley was hinting at before. Part of the Thor: The Dark World Blu-Ray, the story will mark the return of Kingsley's Mandarin character from Iron Man 3, which is sure to rekindle what has been a very divisive debate about his true nature. That nature is a major part of EW's plot description accompanying the first images, so if you have yet to see Iron Man 3, consider this a spoiler warning....

"Ben Kingsley’s dim-witted Mandarin impersonator from Iron Man 3, who has been locked away in a maximum security prison and is reveling in his newfound infamy. (It’s as close to fame as he’s ever gotten.)"

 The story has Kingsley's character, Trevor Slattery, sharing stories with a documentary filmmaker played by Scoot McNairy. So consider this McNairy's intro into the Marvel Universe, which is pretty awesome all by itself. Iron Man 3 co-writer Drew Pearce wrote and directed the short, which shows Slattery indulging in his newfound celebrity, even behind bars...

Pearce: "When we find Trevor at the beginning of this short, other than Tony [Stark], he’s the only one out of 'Iron Man 3' to get what he wanted. And even though he was arrested and beat up and had guns pointed at him, now he’s the celebrity that he always wanted to be and he loves it. He absolutely loves it. He is living a somewhat curtailed version of the celebrity life, but he’s also leading arguably a better life than he did when he was living with, like, four other actors at the age of 52 in some bedsit in the south of London. That’s the other fun thing about the starting point is that when we meet Trevor in the short, Trevor won. The Mandarin didn’t, but Trevor in his own way was victorious."

But Slattery's "victory" may come with a price, especially from a particular terrorist group that has been made to look quite foolish...

Pearce: "Imagine a real terrorist organization whose beliefs were long held and religious for thousands of years, and imagine a drunk, British actor coming along and essentially telling the world that he’s the face of your organization. I think they would be right to be quite angry."

Pearce won't go so far as to say the short is a set-up for Iron Man 4, but he does say it could tie-in to the larger Marvel cinematic universe. Look closely at the images and you'll see Slattery is holed up in Seagate Prison, which happens to be crucial to the origin of one Luke Cage....

Pearce: "I think short movies in general, whether they’re Marvel ones or not, you kind of want them to feel like they’re opening you up to a bigger world. Yeah, I definitely think there are – the non-spoiler way for me to say it — by the end of the short, there are definitely a lot of exciting other places that are brought up in it that could then go in the Marvel universe. You know, whether that’s an Iron Man movie or another one going into Phase Two or Three."

Thor: The Dark World hits store shelves on February 25th, but you can pre-order it now. 

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Ben Kingsley Hints at a Mystery Marvel Project

The response to Marvel's handling of classic villain the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 has been pretty split, with some loving the comedic turn the character takes and others being upset he wasn't more like the familiar version. But what there isn't much debate over is how great Ben Kingsley was in the drunken, overly theatrical role, and now it sounds like Marvel may want to see a little bit more of it.

While talking to The Belfast Telegraph, Kingsley revealed that he's working on a secret Marvel project, and he even dropped a tiny bit of info on it....

Kingsley: "It's a secret Marvel project. I'm not allowed to say any more, you're going to have to wait and see. I was with many members of the crew that were involved in Iron Man 3. It was lovely to see them again. It was great to be with this wonderful family."


So it sounds as if it's already been shot, which means it was likely one of Marvel's series of One-Shot short films, perhaps showing Trever Slattery before he became the global terrorist Mandarin? Or maybe he shot a cameo for a future Marvel movie?  Perhaps we'll get to see Slattery putting his acting skills to good use in a maximum security SHIELD prison? He and the other inmates could put on a great show.

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Is Mandarin the 'Iron Man 3' villain after all?

From the very beginning, people have been wondering when The Mandarin would turn up as part of the Marvel cinematic universe. He is, after all, Iron Man's greatest nemesis, and with a group known as The Ten Rings(symbolizing the ten power rings the villain wears) causing trouble in the first and second films, it seemed logical that he'd turn up in Iron Man 3. In fact, that was Jon Favreau's plan before he dropped out as director, only to be replaced by Shane Black who has previously stated a deep dislike for the character.

But with Marvel and China getting all buddy buddy on this production, the Mandarin talk has resurfaced in a major way. We've seen a number of names cast as villains, with Ben Kingsley being the most prominent. Initial speculation had him pegged to play Mandarin, but was quickly changed to his playing Mallen, who is the leader of a terrorist organization powered by the Extremis nanovirus. But was that the truth? Or just a feint to get us off the scent? Latino Review seems confident they have the answer...

"Here’s what we can CONFIRM as true (and not from some guy working security on an off-lot shoot): The Mandarin (as played by Ben Kingsley) is a villain in the ‘Iron Man 3,’ but he’s more a veiled threat as a silent partner to Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian. Killian is the man inventing Extremis and putting it into his “Extremis army” of multiple super-powered individuals."

 It would certainly be in keeping with the shadowy presentation of Mandarin we've seen so far, where he's pulling the strings in the background but not attacking Tony Stark directly. It would also probably appease the Chinese and Shane Black, who have expressed some concern over the comic book version of the character due to its negative Asian stereotypes. Then again, Ben Kingsley as Mandarin leaves me with images of him twirling a fake mustache Fu Manchu style or something. Or maybe, this Mandarin won't be Asian at all? The character has changed a lot over the years

So taking all of this into account, it looks like there are some significant changes to the Extremis storyline from which the film is based. Killian will be the main villain in the piece, and looks to be gathering a team of armored cronies including Firepower(Ashley Hamilton), Coldblood(James Badge Dale), and whatever character William Sadler is playing.

Not to toot my own horn(toot toot!), but pretty much every prediction I've had about both this and Thor 2 has been dead on. When Ashley Hamilton came aboard as Firepower, it became clear to me that the Black and Drew Pearce's story would largely be based on a popular comic book storyline in which The Mandarin puts together his own superteam to best Iron Man, and that's exactly what is happening. If these reports are accurate, anyway.

Iron Man 3 is due to open on May 3rd 2013.

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