When the Mandarin makes his big screen launch in Iron Man 3, he’ll be missing one—make that ten—important weapons: his rings. While early shots of Ben Kingsley’s portrayal of the Mandarin have shown his hands cluttered with jewelry, director Shane Black stressed during an early press day for the film that the rings are no longer imbued with individual superpowers like flames, ice, mental control, disintegration, and matter-rearranging.
In fact, the rings no longer have special powers at all—and Black knows that fans might not be happy.
"I hate to break it to you, but he’s not from space in this. The rings are rings. They’re showmanship, they’re accoutrements. They’re paraphernalia of warfare that he sort of drapes himself with..."