Bleeding Cool has shared some excerpts from Chris Fenton's new book Feeding the Dragon, which sheds some light on his time as the President of the Chinese-based production company DMG Entertainment Motion Picture Group. Explaining the challenges of bringing American movies into China, he recalled working with Marvel Studios on 2012's The Avengers.
Talking about his interactions with former Marvel Studios Chief Operating Officer Tim Connors, Fenton revealed that there were discussions about The Mandarin and/or Shang-Chi making a surprise appearance in The Avengers post-credits scene.
Apparently, the development team in Beijing felt that Shang-Chi was a safer bet because he was a "good guy," whereas The Mandarin is a villain, and someone the country's "Ministry of Propaganda" probably wouldn't be happy to see in a movie. The biggest problem, however, was the way the Iron Man villain has typically been portrayed in the comic books over the years.
"The Mandarin looks and acts like the stereotypically derogatory Chinese man," he explains. "Not only does he have a long spiny beard that he's constantly straightening with his fingers, but he also regularly speaks in uber-'Chinglish,' constantly saying Chinese-cliché types of proverbs."
The Marvel movies have found great success in China, so this likely goes some way towards explaining why The Mandarin was portrayed so differently in Iron Man 3. The original version of the character is, of course, going to show up in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, but it's likely that he will be reinvented once again and have little in common with his comic book counterpart.
Would you guys have liked to see this post-credits scene in The Avengers?
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