Marvel Studios Clueless When It Came To Iron Man 3 The Mandarin Reception

Iron Man 3 director Shane Black let loose in a new interview about the movie.

Not only did Shane Black discuss how Iron Man 3 originally had a female villain and why the character was axed, but Black also discussed the negative reception to the film and especially Ben Kingsley’s Mandarin — revealing Marvel Studios had no clue their version of the character would be received by the fans so poorly.

Via Uproxx:

I wish that the fans liked it more.

I’m a people pleaser. Marvel saw so many negative things they made a whole other movie just to apologize called Hail to the King. In which they said, “No, no, the Mandarin is still alive. That wasn’t him. There’s a real Mandarin.” The only reason they made that was an apology to fans who were so angry.

Of course, they didn’t care. But when the blowback hit, they cared.

No, we didn’t. We didn’t know. We all thought they’d eat it up because it never occurred to us the Mandarin is as iconic to people as, say, the Joker in Batman.

They just wanted to see the magic rings shoot lasers.

You’d need to take the piss out of it and explain how this can happen. In the comic books, it’s literally magic. It’s magic from outer space. I love the fans. I really want to please them.

Interestingly enough, Marvel is receiving similar criticism for the Ancient One in Doctor Strange as they changed the character’s origin and sex to Celtic and female. Note: The reason the Ancient One and Mandarin were changed in the movies is thought to be due to appeasing the Chinese, which has become a big cash cow for international box off receipts.

Up next for Shane Black is the new 2018 Predator movie.