May 14, 2022 Short 5

This was the final of the Marvel One Shot series that Marvel Studio produced. It was in response to the remarkably infamous twist from Iron Man 3 where the Mandarin, as played by Sir Ben Kingsley, turned out to be nothing more than an actor playing a part. To many ardent fans, this was a twist that they used to hate on Iron Man 3. To me, it was quite a wild thing for Marvel to pull off.

However, they used this short to bring Trevor Slattery, the name of the actor who pretended to be the Mandarin, back to the forefront. The fact that an actor of such renown as Ben Kingsley would be willing to do this short speaks a lot to Marvel.

The character of Trevor Slattery is a ton of fun, almost in a world of his own. The main purpose of the short was to tell the world that there was still a character known as the Mandarin in the MCU besides the one being played by Trevor Slattery.

We see Trevor in prison banking off his reputation and his ability to do the scary Mandarin voice.

In fact, this one shot would eventually lead into one of the best Marvel films of 2021 in Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, where we get to meet the actual Mandarin (though he does not go by that name) and we get a chance to see Trevor Slattery return to the MCU stage and we discover where he has been for all of these years.

Also in All Hail the King, look for a great cameo from Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer.