Who Is the Villain in Iron Man 3?

It looks like Iron Man has found a villain for his third solo film. But it appears that the big screen may still be eluding the Armored Avenger's arch nemesis, the Mandarin.

Visit the set of The Avengers!
Variety reports today that actor Ben Kingsley is in final talks to play the bad guy in old Shellhead's third go-around. And while Marvel is not commenting on the matter, the trade's inside sources "denied that the character would be the Mandarin."


Of course, the original Iron Man film set up the notion of the Mandarin with the terrorist group known as the Ten Rings -- a real-Marvel-world-reference to the villain's magical rings from the comics. They were behind the kidnapping of Tony Stark which led to his becoming Iron Man, and director Jon Favreau had said in the past that he was considering actually bringing the villain into the third film.

But Favreau isn't making Iron Man 3 now -- Shane Black is. And according to Variety, he's casting Kingsley in "a role that revolves around the spread of a virus through nanobots." This tracks with what we've heard previously, namely that the film will be based on the Warren Ellis storyline "Extremis" from the comics.

Production on the film begins in May in North Carolina.



Movies Editor Scott Collura makes you feel he's a cool exec with a heart of steel. A good reason to follow IGN on Twitter and check out Scott on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN, and subscribe to his Facebook updates.

• More Movies News
• Latest Movies News, Reviews, and Videos