Marvel Short To Feature Classic Mandarin?

As you all no doubt know, although I enjoyed Iron Man III, I had a big problem with how they did the Mandarin. To make a long story short, they made him yet another White Military-Industrial Complex type with a grudge against Tony Stark, just like the first two, with the more "exotic" Mandarin being a drug-addicted British actor in dragon robes. Why? Because Shane Black thought the original version was racist and because Chinese money helped fund the production.

This has divided the fans, with some objecting to the classic Mandarin as a racist cliche and others defending him. Sufficient to say I'm on the side of the latter--although some depictions of the Mandarin were racist, it is entirely possible to have a non-racist powerful Asian villain. I even provided some ideas on how I would have done it.

Well, it looks like Marvel/Disney has listened to those of us who wanted there to be the classic Mandarin. This article from CinemaBlend reveals that in an upcoming short to be released with the Thor: Dark World Blu-Ray, we the audience will learn that the Ten Rings organization is thousands of years old and they're not pleased with their image being hijacked, let alone being hijacked by a British cokehead who's claiming to be their leader. Trevor is going to pay. And pay. And pay.

In the immortal words of Mr. Burns...



Hopefully we'll be able to see the real Mandarin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet...