Sir Ben Kingsley In Talks For Villain Role In Iron Man 3

The Avengers is still a few weeks away, but we’re getting our first real news on Iron Man 3 casting already. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Oscar winning actor Ben Kingsley is in negotiations to play a villain role in the upcoming sequel. According to insiders, the part is possibly not that of the main villain though. Although Iron Man’s #1 comic book bad guy the Mandarin has been hinted at since the first movie, it is far from a sure thing he’ll be the one Kingsley plays, or even be in the movie at all.  The original Mandarin was a Fu-Manchu like racist caricature of communist China, and his ten magic rings are a bit too much like Green Lantern for Marvel’s taste.

If the villain is the Mandarin, he’ll probably be totally re-invented for the big screen. Iron Man 1 and 2 director Jon Favreau hinted heavily towards revealing the Mandarin as the big bad in the third part of the trilogy, but he’s no longer directing, Shane Black is. Still, Favs remains an executive producer, so he might still have some pull to get the Mandarin in. of course, even if the Mandarin is in the movie, Kingsley could still be playing someone else entirely. Remember he’s only rumored to be a villain, not the villain.

The current rumors are that Iron Man 3 would take a cue from the Extemis storyline by Warren Ellis and artist Adi Granov that ran in Iron Man #1-6 back in 2005. In that story, Tony Stark is injected with a form of Captain America’s super soldier formula mixed with nano bots, making him less of a man in a suit and more or a literal iron man. This is probably one of the more acclaimed runs of Iron Man’s book in recent memory, and would probably make a great plot for a movie.