No, you didn’t drink yourself into so much of a stupor last night that you’re now experiencing the weirdest form of deja vu. Again.
This is actually a new teaser for the eventual trailer that’s been released along with a batch of new images (one of which we featured in yesterday’s Extras) which gives us the first look at Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin. Well, second look technically, as yesterday’s teaser already did that.
But this time, it’s actually showing the front of his head!
Along with the Mandarin, we also get our first look at Guy Pearce as geneticist Aldrich Killian (who will provide Tony Stark with the Extremis tech that drives his new suit) in this second teaser trailer trailer as well the film’s first official poster showcasing Tony surveying his armoury.
Along with the pics released at EW and USA Today, were also these words from Marvel Studios big kahuna Kevin Feige about the emergence of the Mandarin – now no longer portrayed as the Chinese mystic of the comic but as head of a high-tech terrorist organization, The Ten Ringes – as the man behind the scenes this entire time, the tone of the Shane Black directed/scripted sequel and what this movie means for the character of Tony Stark.
“A lot of this movie is about characters going back into the shadows for various reasons and characters who have been in the shadows coming out and into the light for the first time,” Feige said. “It is Tony who, for various reasons, finds himself receding into the darkness. I don’t mean emotional darkness, I mean literally ducking out of the spotlight. And we’ll see other characters stepping up who have pulled strings from the background, starting to show their hand.”
“The goal with Iron Man 3 is to again prove that all of our single heroes are as interesting alone as they are when they’re all together in an Avengers movie…In this movie, we are again going to see [Tony] stripped down more than we’ve ever seen him since he was in that cave, again with his back against the wall and with nothing but his wits to help him survive.”
For those of you who missed it, The Ten Rings was the name of the terrorist group that kidnapped Tony way back in the beginning of Iron Man 1, which is what led most fanboys to believe that it was only a matter of time before the Mandarin made an appearance. This was of course construed through the fact that in the comics, Mandarin drew his power from 10 magical rings that he wore.
While the the rings were eventually retconned to be extraterrestrial in nature, I’ve always liked this more esoteric origin as it essentially became the technology of Iron Man vs the mysticism of the Mandarin. Now with him just being another terrorist, the character might have lost a bit of an appeal to me. That being said, Ben Kingsley should completely rock the topknot off of this one.
Last Updated: October 23, 2012
