Whether or not you were a fan of Ben Kingsley’s take on seminal Iron Man antagonist The Mandarin, there’s no denying that his portrayal provided one of the major talking points surrounding Iron Man 3 .

For those who have yet to see the movie, turn back now, as the discussion gets a little spoilery from here on in…

While many were delighted by the switcheroo that revealed the fearsome terrorist to be a drug-addled old luvvie simply playing a part, others were predictably horrified by the diversion taken from the source material.

“I would say that we struggled to find a way to present a mythic terrorist that had something about him that registered after the movie’s over as having been a unique take, or a clever idea, or a way to say something of use,” says director Shane Black, defending the direction in which his film took the character.

“And what was of use about the Mandarin’s portrayal in this movie, to me, is that it offers up a way that you can sort of show how people are complicit in being frightened. They buy into things in the way that the audience for this movie buys into it.

“I think that’s a message that’s more interesting for the modern world,” continues Black, “because I think there’s a lot of fear that’s generated toward very available and obvious targets, which could perhaps be directed more intelligently at what’s behind them.”

For our money, Kingsley’s turn was always going to be a divisive one, but was undoubtedly one of the most entertaining parts of the film. And when an increasingly well-worn genre such as the superhero movie manages to surprise you, that’s surely something to be celebrated…

For more spoiler-y Iron Man 3 discussion, check out the TF team’s video below:

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Kevin Feige has been talking about what we can expect from Iron Man 3 , and has expanded upon the official plot synopsis to outline some of the finer points of the new story.

“What we learn in the beginning of Iron Man 3 is that they’ve made an arrangement,” says Feige of Rhodey’s transformation into the Iron Patriot. “Tony has let Rhodey have this suit; he’s using it in conjunction with the US Government.

“So, at the beginning of Iron Man 3 , we see that the President has asked Rhodey as War Machine to get a new paint job and take on the new moniker of the Iron Patriot in order to do American business and be the American hero as opposed to The Avengers or Iron Man himself, who is sort of a separate entity…

“In a way it becomes a buddy action film, in the third act, where they team up. Neither of them have a suit at a certain point in the movie and they really team up in a great, sort of old- fashioned action movie way and Don and Robert have such an amazing rapport.”

He also sheds some more light on Guy Pearce’s character, Aldrich Killian, and how he fits into the rest of the movie.

“Killian heads a brain-trust organization called AIM that is developing Extremis,” explains Feige, “which is something that taps into human DNA and is able to reprogram it and regenerate limbs and enhance strength and cure wounds. But it also could change the whole world, which is what Killian intends to do with it.”

Sounds ominous… Directed by Shane Black, Iron Man 3 will open in the UK on 3 May 2013.

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Iron Man 3 will soon be heading up Marvel’s Phase Two push, and head honcho Kevin Feige has taken the opportunity to build anticipation with some tidbits surrounding the kind of mental state the film finds Tony Stark in.

“”It’s almost like post-traumatic stress,” explains Feige to MTV (opens in new tab) . “He has retreated after the events of The Avengers into his workshop, where he’s building advanced versions of his suits. He has [ designed ] a version of the suit that can latch onto him in individual pieces … anytime, anywhere.

“He starts to realise he doesn’t want to be out of the suit. He’s seen a lot of things in Avengers and has encountered a lot of powerful people, much more powerful than he is.

“Much of the movie is Tony in the middle of the country without his tools and a fairly broken suit to help him. But that’s his superpower: his power is his brain. It’s fun to put Tony Stark in a corner with nothing and see how he can get out of it.”

Feige also has a few things to say about Stark’s nemesis, The Mandarin, and what kind of version of the famous character we’ll be seeing in the film.

“We felt there was leeway to explore the Mandarin in a way that hasn’t been explored before,” he continues. “We found we couldn’t point to any sort of definitive Mandarin story in the comics, so we did an amalgamation. The Mandarin is relentless: he’s a non-stop threat.”

Iron Man 3 opens in the UK on 3 May 2013.

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