Sir Ben Kingsley, who played the Mandarin in this year’s Iron Man 3, has confirmed that he has already reprised the role in a project that has been kept under wraps. Kingsley told the Belfast Telegraph:
It’s a secret Marvel project. I’m not allowed to say any more, you’re going to have to wait and see. I was with many members of the crew that were involved in Iron Man 3. It was lovely to see them again. It was great to be with this wonderful family. I think they have enormous taste as creative artists. There’s nothing lazy or gratuitous about their work. They are at the top of their game, and they’re great company to keep.
So all we know about this project is that Ben Kingsley had a nice time making it. It’s probably a supplemental short that will appear on the Blu-Ray release of one of Marvel’s upcoming films, just like Peggy Carter’s solo one-shot Agent Carter. Maybe it has Ben Kingsley’s bumbling fake villain, Trevor Slattery, stumbling his way into another situation he doesn’t know how to handle. Other characters could have surprise cameos, and the whole thing will most likely be a teaser for some upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe plotline, possibly Avengers-related. Although, since Extremis, the unstable superpower-making serum in Iron Man 3, has featured in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., there’s a possibility that the plot of the short will be related to that, tying the television and cinematic universes together more fully.
In all likelihood, Marvel just didn’t want to let such a big-name actor go before they’d done everything they could with him. After all, Kingsley is a busy man. In the next year, he’ll be appearing in Ender’s Game, The Physician, The Boxtrolls, and a number of other projects.
There isn’t much information yet about the short, and whether that’s the last Marvel project in which Kingsley will be taking part. It will probably be released relatively soon, considering it’s already been filmed, and will be pretty high-profile because the studio has gone to such lengths to keep it so secret and not give us any information at all as to what we’ll be seeing and where we’ll be seeing it. This makes me think that this little project might contain some crucial hint as to future plot twists, but maybe that’s a stab in the dark.
(via: Bleeding Cool)
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