One of the best bait-and-switches in the entire first decade of the MCU was the trick pulled in Iron Man 3, when Ben Kingsley—supposedly credited as classic Iron Man villain The Mandarin, wielder of magical rings and some pretty hoary old stereotypes—was revealed to just be an actor distracting Tony Stark from the real threat. And while a later short film revealed that there was a real Mandarin running around behind the scenes of the Marvel universe, we’ve never gotten a glimpse of him. But that’s about to change.
Marvel revealed at its Comic-Con panel today that the long-assumed Shang-Chi movie—focused on one of the superhero universe’s most resolutely old-school ass-kickers—will actually be Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, and that its hero will be facing off against the “real” Mandarin at last. Tony Leung will be playing the mastermind—probably, because fool us once, and all—while Simu Liu, recently of the Taken TV show and Kim’s Convenience, will be playing Shang-Chi himself. (Liu was reportedly cast Tuesday, so you can get a sense of how hard Marvel’s been pushing itself to be ready for the Con this year.)
Shang-Chi Etc. is just one part of Marvel’s extremely ambitious slate of projects for the next two years, and is currently scheduled for February 12, 2021.