The Mandarin is Iron Man's arch enemy and greatest foe in the Marvel Comics and the very best thing about the Mandarin in the comics are power rings he wears on all 10 fingers and with each of the rings possessing a variety of magic, abilities and power, Mandarin is one of the best known super villains ever to have amazed many fans as a master class super villain just like Marvel's iconic villain Doctor Doom and many more.
Now for anyone who has seen Iron Man 3, yeah I know, what a disappointing letdown because of the damn twist that made the film makers of Marvel Studio ruin the character by turning him into a joke and ripping us off unfairly with Aldrich Killian as their excuse of an MCU Mandarin over their own inconveniences with doing the character properly with power rings and as the Osama Bin Laden of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and especially with Jon Favreau corrupting Kevin Feige and the rest of Marvel into denying the oppertunity on doing the special effects for the power rings' laser projections thinking that they wouldn't work because all he and the rest of the film makers were too far bent on keeping the MCU tied to reality because all because they wanted the film's to make billions in gross revenue. Well that was rude. Fortunately director Shane Black was kind enough to explain their reasons on the twist was because they have the entire MCU franchise tied to our reality and events and for how it made things difficult for characters like the Mandarin to function properly as shown in the comics, showing that he and the rest of the film makers understand our disappointment about the twist, it is certain that the Mandarin will not be changed to Killian in the cartoons and comics over the fact that making him MCU Mandarin violates the character in every way as well as making this version all about people using people as masks for their own purposes. Especially since Mandarin was seen in his proper comicbook depiction in junior novels, merchandises, and of course his appearance in Marvel Avengers Alliance with the exact same rings he wears in the comics which comes to show that just because some changes are being made on some characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, doesn't mean that all of them will follow in the comics or the cartoons, take Abomination and Whiplash for example that because of how they were depicted in the movies they remained as they were originally from the comics back in the 60's and now which just comes to show that just because the Mandarin was not interpretated exactly as shown from the comics it does not mean they will continue using that version in the cartoons. They just like Loki, the Destroyer, the Chitauri along with Malekith and Kurse would need to be approved by everyone first and besides if they were to feature Extremis powered villains in the cartoons, they would just use Savin, Mallen, or have villains like Doc Ock express using that stuff to heal their broken bones.
Anyway back to the Mandarin. Now if Marvel Animation Studios does feature the Mandarin in both or either Ultimate Spider-Man season 3 or Avengers Assemble season 2, they would perform their own kind of twist. By not ditching the rings and chinese stereotypes, Brian Michael Bendis, Paul Dini, and Man of Action would make their twist on the Mandarin in either one of the two shows expressing that he has changed his lifestyle from dictator to corporate businessman who runs his own city named after himself, and down below are the two versions Marvel is most likely to use for the twist in the animated shows:
Now as you can see from the pictures above, the both show them Mandarin in both his dictator attire on the left and as a corporate businessman who runs his own city named after himself. So to be specific on the subject, the Mandarin that the heroes will discover as a decoy will be the dictator depicted version and the one in the fancy business suit serving as the Mandarin's modern day look will be the real Mandarin for the heroes to fight in either Ultimate Spider-Man or Avengers Assemble.
Sure enough if the Mandarin is to appear in the cartoons next year, the best choice of his appearance is very much like Ultimate Spider-Man.because the Mandarin had appeared as a major villain in this years Iron Man 3, he is now on high speculation of appearing in certain shows like these and sure enough there is one thing that both the Mandarin and Spider-Man have in common other than being killed by Doc Ock and Ezekiel last year in December 2012 comic book issues: It's the very start of their origins:
They both lost their parents when they were young
And the contrast on the paths they've chosen is simply what they have chosen to use their own found powers for their own purposes
Spider-Man chose his path on being the hero using his powers for good and the Mandarin chose his path on being the villain by using the power of the ten rings for his own desires
Also as powerful as the Mandarin is with the ten power rings, he would serve as the ultimate enemy for Spidey and his team to take on and as Iron Man's arch foe, it's time that Spider-Man gets to know this villain on the small animation screen and to engage the villain in the ultimate battle between good and evil and when it comes to power comes great responsibility which is exactly what Spider-Man must show the Mandarin if Marvel ever gets them to fight each other in the show
If the Mandarin does turn up next year in season three he is most speculated to be voiced by one of these two actors below:
Oded Fehr or Hoon Lee
Oded Fehr recently voiced Living Mummy in the Ultimate Spider-Man Halloween special which lead to a slight possibility that he is returning to lend his voice to the Mandarin or if not then it is most likely to be TMNT voice actor Hoon Lee. Some of you are wanting Mandarin to be voiced by George Takei but because of how relentless the villain is against Iron Man, his voice needs to be sharp, clear, and bold so it's either Fehr or Lee
Anyway keep doing what you're doing and be sure to stay tuned for more updates on the shows