So, even though Marvel Studios has done a great job already of spoiling one of the big surprises of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” we’re not going to do the same thing here.
**Spoilers for ‘Shang-Chi’ below**
So, if you’ve seen “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” and you weren’t spoiled by Marvel Studios revealing the character’s appearance through videos and images on social media, then you were likely surprised by the appearance of Ben Kingsley returning as Trevor Slattery, aka the fake Mandarin from “Iron Man 3.” Though his appearance makes complete sense and fits well in the story of ‘Shang-Chi,’ Trevor’s reappearance after nearly a decade was still surprising and unexpected. And according to director Destin Daniel Cretton, he wasn’t sure Kingsley would even want to return.
Speaking to EW, Cretton talked about how he was “intimidated” about speaking with Kingsley about returning to the MCU. However, he knew Trevor was going to be part of the plan for the film. So, all he had to do was give Kingsley a call and see if the actor was interested in returning.
“He said, ‘Hold on, someone’s shouting at me from the other room,'” Cretton said about his first call with Ben Kingsley. “He stopped talking to me, and I heard a voice shouting from the other room, saying, ‘Who’s on the phone? Who are you talking to?’ He says, ‘I’m talking to Destin from Marvel Studios. He wants you to be in the next movie.’ And I realized he was playing Trevor in the room. He was talking to Trevor, and Trevor was asking who he was talking to, and then I heard Trevor say, ‘Of course I’ll be in that movie. When do we leave?’”
The filmmaker continued, “And that bit went on for like four minutes. It wasn’t just like a little joke. It was like a full scene.”
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As we all know now, Kingsley did return as Trevor Slattery, and he plays a pretty crucial role in the middle of ‘Shang-Chi,’ providing some much-needed humor as well as plot progression. And it’s the humor that impressed Cretton the most.
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“Even though in a lot of senses, he is playing the Shakespearean clown of our movie, the depth that he puts into that performance, it’s amazing,” Crettin said. “It’s amazing how serious he takes the comedy, and it shows. He gets some of the biggest laughs in the movie because I think it’s so rooted in the character work that he does.”
You can see Ben Kingsley’s triumphant return as Trevor Slattery in “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” which is in theaters now.