Slattery is a washed-up, drug-addicted actor hired by Aldrich Killian and the think tank Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) to portray the Mandarin, a persona influenced by many modern terrorists and named after a supposed legendary Chinese title.

[3] Ben Kingsley entered negotiations for the role in April 2012,[4] and had joined the cast of Iron Man 3 by September, when he stated, "Quite soon I'll be with everybody and we'll be discussing the look and the feel and the direction of the character.

"[9] Black explained that part of altering the character from the comics was to avoid the Fu Manchu stereotype, and instead say that he "draws a cloak around him of Chinese symbols and dragons because it represents his obsessions with Sun Tzu in various ancient arts of warfare that he studied."

[11] The reveal of Trevor Slattery in Iron Man 3, after only his terrorist Mandarin persona had been marketed, was met with mixed responses, as many fans of the comics opposed the changes made to the original character.

Singer felt that the film "rather brilliantly evades that minefield [of the comics' racist caricature] by using it as the fuel for satire; revealing the Kingsley Mandarin's mish-mosh of Orientalist imagery as a construction designed to play into ignorant people's fears.

Black suggests we should be far more worried about the well-dressed, amoral CEO than the vaguely defined "Other" of so many bad pieces of pop culture....Part of what I liked about Iron Man 3 was that it did something different.

[15] In response to the fan controversy, Pearce said, "I'm unbelievably proud of what we did, and also the fact that we actually snuck a surprise into a big summer movie, which is, on a logistical level alone, really hard to do, now.

[17] Reviewing All Hail the King, Cliff Wheatley, also at IGN, described the short as "a return to the loveable personality of the hapless Trevor ... that should satisfy both lovers and haters" of the character.

He added that "Kingsley once again shines in the role of Slattery, aloof and ignorant, but more than happy to slide back into Mandarin mode if it will please his adoring fans.

"[18] Faraci felt that the character "was used the perfect amount in Iron Man Three, and giving him more screen time here, in a side project, feels the right way to return to him.

Kingsley is having a blast, delivering plenty of wonderful jokes and sinking right into the clueless, egocentric character who represents all of our worst stereotypes of actors.