Even though Ben Kingsley will forever be known as the guy who played that peace loving rabble rouser, Gandhi, he makes for an even better bad guy. So it makes sense that the folks at Marvel would look to him to play the bad guy in Iron Man 3, where he'll get to jabber back and forth against Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark. Yeah, I'd say this is a step up from a whip wielding Mickey Rourke. At least we'll be able to understand what the hell Kingsley is saying.
Unfortunately, Kingsley won't be playing Iron Man arch nemesis The Mandarin like some had hoped. Instead, it looks as if he'll be playing Mallen, a character from Warren Ellis' Extremis storyline, which a couple weeks ago had been rumored to be the source for the film and has now been confirmed by Variety. In that classic storyline, Mallen is a terrorist powered up by nanobot technology who goes off to kill the world leaders. In the process he helps spread the nano-virus that Stark eventually uses to power up his own nervous system, essentially turning himself into a cyborg. There's no confirmation on the Mallen character's presence, but based on what I know of the series that would seem to fit.
Filming on Iron Man 3 begins next month with Shane Black directing. Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, and Don Cheadle will all be back for more action. The film is due to open on May 3rd 2013!
