People seem very excited about the prospect of Ben Kingsley playing the bad guy in Iron Man 3 – have they never seen Thunderbirds? Oh, yeah… I guess not. Sources are now confirming the long-held rumour that Kingsley is playing the Mandarin, while new paparazzi shots of the Iron Man 3 set have revealed another villain.

The Mandarin, an Asian despot with more bling than Mr. T, is the undoubted arch-foe of Tony Stark’s Iron Man. But while his presence in an IM movie has been trailed by the ‘Ten Rings’ terrorist group from films one and two, the character is a crude enough Fu Manchu-alike that there was some doubt as to whether he really would surface or not.

Well, Kingsley has now seemingly been confirmed in the role, although the same report claims the Mandarin will not be the main villain in the currently-shooting Iron Man 3 (also see Top 20 Best Movies 2013), with that function instead being filled by Aldrich Killian, played by Guy Pearce.

As directed by Shane Black (who directed Tony Stark himself, Robert Downey Jr., in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), Iron Man 3 also features new franchise cast members Rebecca Hall, Andy Lau, Ashley Hamilton (does anyone else recall his dreadful single Wimmin? No, just me then), and Shame star James Badge Dale.

And it is Dale who is at the centre of the latest development to emerge from this next Marvel movie, he having been snapped on-set in the garb of the Iron Patriot, a character whose comic book alter-ego is, rather confusingly, Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin from Spider-Man. Not here though. No siree.

Iron Man 3 is out on 3 May 2013.

Source: Latino Review, The Superficial