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Entertainment Weekly shared the first image of Sir Ben Kingsley dressed as the villainous Mandarin in "Iron Man 3." Kingsley, known for playing (really) good guys like Gandhi, is going evil in a major way for next summer's blockbuster.

Like most comic book baddies, The Mandarin has a rather convoluted history. According to Marvel's official site, he was born in China around 1920 and raised by his aunt following the death of his parents. But unlike Peter Parker, The Mandarin took the bad-guy route. After being ousted from power following the Chinese Communist revolution, he went about seeking invincibility by other means. He found it in an ancient spaceship equipped with ten mystical rings. Not surprisingly, he didn't use the rings for good.

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"Iron Man 3" will give The Mandarin a different backstory. Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, told EW: "A lot of this movie is about characters going back into the shadows for various reasons and characters who have been in the shadows coming out and into the light for the first time. It is Tony [Stark] who, for various reasons, finds himself receding into the darkness. I don't mean emotional darkness, I mean literally ducking out of the spotlight. And we'll see other characters stepping up who have pulled strings from the background, starting to show their hand."

The choice to cast Kingsley as a villain of Chinese ancestry must have raised a few eyebrows, but the filmmakers are aiming to defuse any controversy by making him more multi-cultural. "It's less about his specific ethnicity than the symbolism of various cultures and iconography that he perverts for his own end," Feige told EW.

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There's another question that bears asking: Will moviegoers be down with seeing the man who won an Oscar for playing Gandhi blow up Tony Stark's mansion? Something tells us they will. As skilled as Kingsley is at playing good guys, he may be even better at playing villains. And he knows it. He's voiced his desire to play a bad guy opposite 007. "I would like to make it known, on this program, loud and clear, that I would absolutely embrace with all five of my arms being a Bond villain," Kingsley said on radio several years back.

Something tells me this is going to be similar to The Dark Knight Rises. Mandarin will beat Iron Man half dead the first time they fight and wipe out all his resources. Then Tony will go through this depression/ soul searching/ no tech. period where he has to rely on his wits to counterattack from behind Mandarin's eyes while he takes over. Then Tony will come back with this amazing new suit and kick Mandarin's #$%$ with some awesome energy stunt. Oh, and War Machine will either help out or be absent due to casting technicalities and have some convenient excuse explaining it. OR, he'll be replaced by yet another African American actor. It'd be funny if he was played by Robert Downey Jr. doing his character from Tropic Thunder alongside Robert playing Iron Man, that would be HILARIOUS! "I'm the dude playin' the dude who plays War Machine but was replaced by another dude playin' this dude!"

How about the tattoo on the Mandarin's neck?!

LatinoReview is confirming that Ben Kingsley is indeed playing The Mandarin (Gene Khan?) in Iron Man 3. However, he won't be the main villain of the film which will be scientist Aldrich Killian played by Guy Pearce (Memento, Lockout, Hurt Locker, Lawless, Prometheus). Mandarin will be more of a silent partner to Killian who develops the Extremis virus and creates a group of his own Extremis soldiers. It's very possible that Eric Savin/Coldblood (James Badge Dale) and Jack Taggert/Firepower (Ashely Hamilton) will be apart of this army and they will be greatly changed from their original incarnations in the comics.

LatinoReview has a decent enough track record with the Marvel exclusives, as they previously reported that Loki was going to be the villain of Avengers before it was announced. Seemingly this confirms that Marvel is combining Extremis and Armor Wars. It's possible they are moving slowly with amount of The Mandarin to leave room to use him as a main villain in Iron Man 4 or even Avengers 2. Marvel might be hopeful to get a couple more Iron Man films out of Robert Downey Jr. so they're holding back on a few villains (popular ones like Ghost and Whitney Frost). I wouldn't be surprised to see Crimson Dynamo (another version), Kearson DeWitt, Titanium Man and Cobalt included in Killian's Extremis army.

‘Men In Black 3′ took the number one spot at the box office last weekend, and there’s even a part in it where Will Smith’s Agent J totally smack talks schwarma! Take THAT Avengers!

Nevertheless, we’re in the “here comes Prometheus’ part of the summer where Kristen Stewart is going to try to squeeze a few good Box Office days before the other, more exciting Charlize Theron performance comes out (she bathes in lotion in SWATH, does naked pushups in Prometheus…I’m for naked pushups).

As all this goes on, ‘Iron Man 3′ continues to film in Wilmington, under Shane Black and his small army of writers. It’s a huge tech-James-Bond-thriller from what we’ve hearing and they made the interesting choice to film outside the lot yesterday. The production took to the Cape Fear Club and security locked everything down so no one got any photos of the military and secret service costumed actors on set.

Some crew member opened his mouth and said that Mandarin is the villain and had “twins” who did his dirty work for him.

Of course, that got me a bit pissy, because that’s not exactly true.

Here’s what we can CONFIRM as true (and not from some guy working security on an off-lot shoot): The Mandarin (as played by Ben Kingsley) is a villain in the ‘Iron Man 3,’ but he’s more a veiled threat as a silent partner to Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian. Killian is the man inventing Extremis and putting it into his “Extremis army” of multiple super-powered individuals.

Still no word on exactly how many Extremis soldiers we’ll see, but I’m sticking to my theory that the Coldblood-7 and Firepower casting will not be traditional comics versions of those characters, but instead names they’ve given to Extremis soldiers.

While we’re talking ‘Iron Man 3,’ you might recall our last scoop involved the addition of William Sadler to the cast. We’ve since contacted both Sadler’s reps as well as Marvel. The official word: “No Comment.”

HELLS YEAH, Sadler’s in the movie.

Remember when we were all like: “Loki is the villain in the Avengers!” and then Marvel AND Tom Hiddleston both said: “No, Loki is not in the Avengers?” Well, look for Marvel to ride that “Mandarin is NOT in ‘Iron Man 3′” line for a bit longer. I’m not sure what to think of this “Mandarin has evil twins” thing, but I’m guessing that’s some on-set guy getting a bit confused.

We are CONFIRMing though, outside of Marvel official channels, so despite denials, prepare to see Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin in ‘Iron Man 3.’ He may not be in it as much as we’re expecting, because The Mandarin might survive ‘Iron Man 3′ to feed into something like ‘Avengers 2.’

Marvel’s Iron Man 3 pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy’s hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

Prediction: some group will come out and protest the movie because they find The Mandarin to be stereotypical and "offensive".

Like the Aryan Brotherhood complaining that Hogun the Grim was an Asian guy when he's supposed to be white?

It's not racist to expect a character to be as he/she is portrayed in the source material. Would you be okay with a Mexican Superman or an Indian Wolverine on the big screen?

It's not racist to expect a character to be as he/she is portrayed in the source material. Would you be okay with a Mexican Superman or an Indian Wolverine on the big screen?

Just mark my words, some group will have a problem with it and it will get media attention.

The preview looks FREAKING AWESOME! However, shouldn't the Mandarin be Asian?

Sir Ben Kingsley is a great actor, but can't take him serious as the Mandarin. A lot of good asian actors that were looked over for this role.

Though British, Ben actually is Asian. His father is Indian, and Ben Kingsley is only his stage name. His real name is Krishna Pandit Bhanji. That's why he was perfectly cast in "Gandhi".

While Indian is technically Asian because they are on the Continent, they aren't of the Asian ethnicity, Mandarin in the comics was, specifically Chinese.

He knows what I meant. He doesn't look the part and doesn't fit the part. Will he do a good job? Sure. But could they have cast the role better? Hell. Yes.

I know what he's driving at too, even though his rationale was cack-handed. Look, anyone who's from Asia is Asian. If you're trying to say in a roundabout way that as an Indian, he lacks authentic Sino traits, then that's bunkum. One crucial thing you seem to be forgetting. This is a movie we're discussing, not a documentary. Since when has authenticity got in the way of Hollywood casting decisions? Obviously, the producers need a star name to fill the villain's role (see Jeff Bridges for 1, Mickey Rourke for 2). Kingsley has proved a versatile actor for decades. I trust him to pull this role off and more, considering that the Mandarin isn't really a grade-A Iron Man villain. But then neither were Whiplash or Obadiah Stane.