Director Jon Favreau has been sprinkling "Ten Rings" references throughout Iron Man and Iron Man 2, leading many fans to speculate that the ring-wielding villain the Mandarin might very well be the main antagonist in Iron Man 3. Now, in a recent interview with MTV, Favreau has admitted that he has "got to do the Mandarin" in the sequel, but he has to figure out a way to do it that fits into the tech-based world he's created for Iron Man.
"The problem with the Mandarin is that the way it's depicted in the comic books, you don't want to see that. He has 10 magical rings — that just doesn't feel right for our [franchise]. So it's either tech-based, or the rings are not really rings. But maybe with Thor and all those others, you'll introduce magic to that world and it won't seem so out of place."
Favreau said that he can't really make any plans until he sees what happens with the other Marvel Studios movies currently in production.
"Iron Man 3, to pay it off, there's so much left to understand about what the world is going to be like then. You've got Thor, Captain America, Avengers all happening with different directors before Iron Man 3, and that's all going to affect Iron Man 3.
"And what's going to have happened by then? With Thor, you're going to have all this supernatural stuff happening, and magic. There's a lot of stuff going on in the world; if it's going to match the comic book, it's going to be incredibly complex for a film. I'm curious to see how they handle all that stuff."