Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings features a few fun surprises, but one of the most unexpected comes when we're reintroduced to Trevor Slattery.
In Iron Man 3, we learned that A.I.M.'s Aldrich Killian had hired the actor to portray "The Mandarin," and in the All Hail The King One-Shot, Trevor was busted out of prison by the Ten Rings. In Shang-Chi, Trevor returns, revealing that he's been imprisoned by Wenwu to entertain his men (the only reason he wasn't executed was that he started performing for them seconds before they pulled the trigger).
Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, screenwriter Dave Callaham explained why the decision was made to bring the character back after his Iron Man 3 appearance in 2013. Ultimately, with Iron Man gone, it sounds like this was the best way of tying into that franchise they could find!
"In our case, Sir Ben’s character, Trevor Slattery, was really the only connective tissue we had available to us to connect to any previous iteration of the Ten Rings or the Mandarin, because Tony Stark is dead," Callaham explained. "We knew we wanted to use Sir Ben if it was possible, and that was a question we asked very early. 'Would Marvel be open to that? Was that a good experience? Did he enjoy playing Trevor Slattery?'
"It’s been some time since he was in Iron Man 3 so I didn’t know what his appetite is for coming back to a role like that. We asked and Kevin said, 'Sounds great. We all love Trevor here. We’d love to see him again. But you guys need to craft the story and then lure him in. And that will be on you guys creatively, to give him something juicy,'" he recalled. "I don’t know if we did outlines or had an actual script at the point we first approached him. That’s the moment I believe some version of Destin having to do a Zoom meeting or something like that happened, and he described what we were thinking, and it turns out Sir Ben very much likes to play Trevor Slattery. It worked out."
The response to this "Mandarin" reveal wasn't overly positive, especially after the trailers marketed Kingsley's version as the one fans had been waiting to see from the comic books.
Things did work out for the best by the time all was said and done, of course, as we ultimately got a far more authentic take on this villain thanks to Tony Leung. Trevor, meanwhile, was definitely an entertaining part of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings...even if he did outstay his welcome!
As of right now, there's no word on the possibility of him showing up elsewhere in the MCU, but stay tuned as you never know when that might change.
Check out what Guy Pearce had to tell us about his Iron Man 3 role below: