At long last, a plot thread that’s been left dangling for seven whole years will be paid off this Friday when the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings comes to theaters, after the presence of Ben Kingsley at the world premiere confirmed that he’d be back as Trevor Slattery for the first time since One-Shot All Hail the King.
Iron Man 3‘s Mandarin twist remains one of the most polarizing and divisive moments in MCU history, but it was swiftly retconned when the short film came attached to the home video release of Thor: The Dark World. Living it up in Seagate Prison, Trevor discovered that his performance as Aldrich Killian’s patsy had angered the real Ten Rings, and they were breaking the jobbing actor out of jail to bring him to the organization’s leader.
Hong Kong cinema legend Tony Leung was cast as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings‘ Mandarin, although his origins have also been tweaked to position him as the estranged father of Simu Liu’s title hero. In a new interview, director Destin Daniel Cretton explained how All Hail the King‘s cliffhanger ending factors into the plot of his martial arts comic book blockbuster.
“I mean, I know Drew Pearce and I love that One-Shot that he wrote and directed. And it was a sharp film and that’s part of the MCU. And so, we want to be true to that story as well. And including that storyline in this movie I think was not only just really fun, I think it’s essential to hear that character admit how ridiculous that whole situation was.”
Leung has drawn rave reviews for his performance in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and the prospect of seeing his emotionally-charged and measured work play off against Kingsley’s grandstanding Trevor is an undeniably exciting prospect, especially when the substance-addled thespian never really seemed to grasp the extent to which his actions had managed to irritate one of the criminal underworld’s most powerful, feared and respected figures.
