Tony Leung, the actor who plays the Mandarin in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, says he didn’t think of his character as the movie’s villain.
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Even though that him Mandarin is one of the most famous villains in Marvel comics, he has been slow to make his true appearance in the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In Iron Man 3 it was announced that the iconic Tony Stark antagonist would be played by Ben Kingsley, but during the movie it was revealed that Kingsley’s character was simply an actor.
The existence of the Mandarin in the MCU was later confirmed, and finally in 2019 it was announced that Tony Leung would play a new version of the character in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
During the promotion of the Marvel movie, more of the character has been shown, and during several interviews Leung has also taken the opportunity to talk more about his interpretation of the Mandarin and the freedom he has had to create the character. According to the actor, one of the things that has helped him the most in his work is not thinking about Wenwu as the villain of the story, if not that he has focused more on his past.
“When Marvel offered me the role, what they wanted me to create was a completely new Mandarin, so I was able to develop my character as we shot. I never treated Wenwu from one point of view like he was the villain,” Leung explained in an interview with Slashfilm.
