Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings marks a pretty exciting step forward for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s introducing a brand new hero in the form of Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi, and with a cast that is 98% Asian, it’s also increasing the diversity of the MCU in a major way. But the film will also serve as a reckoning of sorts with the MCU’s past in the form of the character The Mandarin, who serves as the major antagonist of the Destin Daniel Cretton-directed movie as well as the titular Shang-Chi’s father.

The Mandarin, of course, is a famous Marvel Comics villain who has had a checkered past with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He was originally planned to be the Big Bad of the first-ever Marvel movie, Iron Man, until director Jon Favreau and Co. got cold feet over the racial stereotypes of bringing said character to the screen. He was eventually used as the antagonist for Iron Man 3, except not really. For half of that sequel's running time audiences believed Sir Ben Kingsley’s character was The Mandarin – portrayed in that film as a terrorist of unknown origin – but the twist is that The Mandarin is really a front for white collar criminal Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce).

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Fans were divided on Iron Man 3’s twist – some thought the plot development was a clever way around portraying a frankly racist character from the comics, while others felt duped and wanted to see the real Mandarin instead of Kingsley’s hilarious Trevor Slattery.

Shang-Chi Mandarin
Image via Marvel Studios

Well fans in the latter camp will get their wish with Shang-Chi. Tony Leung fills the role of Wenwu, who also goes by the name of The Mandarin. In the story of the film, Wenwu trained his son Shang-Chi to eventually be part of the family business – the criminal Ten Rings organization – but Shang-Chi turned his back on his father and moved to America. The story picks up 10 years later, when Shang-Chi is pulled back into his family’s dealings.

Speaking with EW, producer Jonathan Schwartz shed some light on how Shang-Chi is bringing The Mandarin to the screen, and it sounds like fans hoping for a 1:1 comics accurate portrayal may want to adjust their expectations:

"I think people hear 'the Mandarin' and expect a very specific kind of thing, and that may not be the thing they're getting," Schwartz teases. "They're hopefully getting a more complex and layered take on the character than that name would lead you to."

Liu added in the same article that the filmmakers were careful to update the characters to avoid racial stereotypes that were prevalent in the comics back in the 70s and 80s:

"When you look at the character of Shang-Chi through the comic books going back to the '70s and '80s, the fact that he existed and the fact that he was an Asian character was amazing," Liu says. "But at the same time, there are aspects of that portrayal of him that maybe could feel a little stereotypical. So when we first started to map out who this character was and what his journey was going to be over the course of this film, we were all very sensitive to not have it go into stereotypical territory."

Director and co-writer Destin Daniel Cretton also praised Leung’s performance as Wenwu as an antagonist “who has a deep ability to love,” and elsewhere teased the film as a family drama mixed with a martial arts action epic, so we can expect some complicated emotions to be at play instead of a simple “Good vs. Evil” story.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings opens in theaters on September 3, 2021. The cast also includes Awkwafina, Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu, Ronny Chieng, and Michelle Yeoh.

KEEP READING: How the MCU Was Made: 'Iron Man 3' and Crafting That Mandarin Twist