The Real Mandarin is Lurking Somewhere in the MCU and His Debut Seems to be the New 'Slow Burn Reveal' by Marvel Studios

First there was the Mandarin twist in IRON MAN 3. Some hated it, many others loved it. Then came the Marvel One-Shot ALL HAIL THE KING and it was revealed retconned that the real Mandarin is still somewhere lurking in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and he's very upset by others acting as him during the events of IRON MAN 3.

Now it's been revealed there will be a presence of the Mandarin's 10 Rings terrorist organization in ANT-MAN. Not only does this connect ANT-MAN to the larger MCU storyline but it means Marvel Studios has recognized there is another long-game to play.

That long-game is to slowly reveal the real Mandarin via the continued use of the 10 Rings in the MCU.

This is great news for fans of the comic book villain, and regardless of your opinion on the twist in IRON MAN 3, the real Mandarin is out there and his plot in the MCU is being developed. When he does reveal himself will remain a big mystery — online forums and comment sections will surely speculate about it — but this is a very savvy move by Marvel to include the 10 Rings in ANT-MAN. It tells fans he's out there scheming, planning... something.

So far in the MCU, Thanos has been the big bad who has had a slow and methodical reveal. It seems like the Mandarin might be on deck and waiting his turn for a potential reveal with a slow burn of teases. (By the way, this is a lot of speculation by The Daily SuperHero at the time this post was published.)

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