It’s ironic that Kevin Feige and the rest of the MCU brass felt they couldn’t do justice to a proper Mandarin in an Iron Man movie considering that he’s one of Tony Stark’s greatest enemies in the comics.
Mandarin and Iron Man have tussled numerous times since the former’s debut in 1964’s Tales of Suspense #50, just 11 issues after Tony Stark first hit the scene.
So instead, Iron Man 3 director and co-writer Shane Black decided to put a twist on The Mandarin mythos that saw Trevor Slattery performing the character as part of Aldrich Killian’s Extremis-filled plans for AIM. Shortly before he was defeated, Killian claimed he was the real Mandarin, though he had nothing to back it up aside from a dragon tattoo.