- Kevin Feige updates fans on the MCU's future
including the return of an old villain!
Marvel maestro Kevin Feige is usually pretty tight-lipped
when it comes to the future of the decade spanning
Marvel cinematic universe.
However, with Avengers: Endgame within reach of becoming
the biggest film of all time,
we guess Feige was feeling a little generous
because on Wednesday, for the first time,
he jumped on Reddit for an AMA, Ask Me Anything,
kind of almost anything.
Because, as expected, there were a lot of questions
that the seasoned producer politely declined.
So sorry to all y'all who that we were getting
a definitive answer about the X-Men and the MCU
or when we'll finally see Seth Green in a standalone
Howard the Duck movie.
But there were plenty of juicy tidbits Feigi was happy
to answer and we're breaking down some of the better bits
as well as one big drop that we think
ties into the future of the MCU.
So what were some of these tiny nuggets, you ask?
How about the fact that while a lot of the original
Avengers have wrapped up their arcs,
the Hulk still has some interesting places to go.
According to Feige, he and Mark Ruffalo had a sit down
a few years ago to discuss how they both liked
to see the character develop,
and while we have seen some of that play out in
Thor Ragnarok, and Avengers Endgame,
he says we'll see even more if it in phase four.
He also revealed that he loves seeing old characters
that fan base may have forgotten about
pop back up in unexpected places.
Like General Thunderbolt Ross disappearing
for about a dozen films then returning in Civil War,
or Harley, Tony Stark's pre-Peter Parker protege
from Iron Man 3 showing up at his funeral
at the end of Endgame.
Of course, he didn't mention any specific characters
we might see make a comeback except for one.
Or more accurately, he mentioned we're finally
going to see a character we've heard mentioned before
but have never actually seen.
If you can think back all the way
to the summer of 2013 you might remember
there was a little controversy over the handling
of the iconic Iron Man villain the Mandarin.
In the comics the Mandarin is a diabolical madman
who is also a skilled martial artist
and a genius scientist who crafts
ten rings of power from a crashed alien ship.
In fact we get an homage to the Mandarin
all the way back in the very first Iron Man movie
as the group that kidnapped Tony
and propelled him to create his
Mark 1 Iron Man suit was called The Ten Rings.
- Tony Stark was able to build
this in a cave, with a box of scraps!
- Nonetheless fans were in a little bit of an uproar
when writer director Shane Black
treated the Mandarin as a little bit of a joke.
Casting academy award winning actor Ben Kingsley in the role
only to reveal the character was nothing more
than a part being played by a perpetually drunk
community theater performer named Trevor Slattery.
And while Kingsley was undoubtedly hilarious in the movie,
a lot of viewers didn't like to see
such a beloved bad guy turned into a punchline.
Anyway a few months later Marvel released
the one shot short film on the
Thor: The Dark World home release,
both as an attempt to course correct the Mandarin
and an attempt to give people a reason to buy
Thor: The Dark World.
In the short we catch up with Trevor Slattery in prison
and find out that the Mandarin was real all along,
and was none to happy about this doofus
impersonating him on a world wide stage.
It ends with Trevor getting the ominous news
that the Mandarin will be breaking him out of jail soon
so that the two of them can have a little sit down
to discuss the consequences of identify theft.
Ooh, he's gonna get his face cut off.
So the point is the Mandarin does exist
in his OG big bad form somewhere in the MCU.
And one intrepid redditer asked Feige
if we could ever expect to see him
or the ten rings on screen in any capacity,
to which he Feige responded with a short and simple yes.
Whoa, you don't usually expect that kind of directness
from Feige but there it is, clear as day.
A big ol' emphatic yes.
Of course with Tony Stark gone the big question
now is how will one of Iron Man's most famous villains
fit into the MCU without Iron Man.
Well we have an idea.
It seems pretty likely that one of the Marvel
phase four movies on the horizon
is Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu,
A martial arts based superhero from the seventies.
And while the character is pretty well known,
his rogues gallery isn't except for one
his father Fu Manchu a Chinese super villain
created by British author Sax Rohmer in the early 1900's.
Back in the seventies Marvel had required the rights
to use Manchu in their comics and built
most of Shang Chi's arc around him discovering
that he was a descendant of evil.
Grappling with that fact and eventually putting
an end to his bad daddy's schemes.
Unfortunately Marvel lost the rights
to the character in the ensuing years,
meaning that they would have to reacquire them
if they wanted to do the exact same story from the comics.
But an easy work around would just be to
retcon history a bit and make the Mandarin Shang-Chi's pop.
This would allow Marvel to update the character
without including some of his more problematic origins.
Plus it would provide a nice bit of continuity between
Iron Man and this next wave of Marvel movies,
continuing the threads of those stories
even with a lot of those OG hero's gone.
But what do you folks think?
Will the Mandarin show up in Shang-Chi,
or could you see him somewhere else in the MCU?
And what other long forgotten characters
would you like to see show back up?
With Professor Hulk now in play,
could Tim Blake Nelson finally get to play the leader?
Let's discuss.
Thanks for watching.
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