Characters / MCU: A.I.M.

aka: MCU Advanced Idea Mechanics

Main Character Index > Villainous Individuals and Organizations > White Collar Criminals > Hammer Advanced Weapons Systems | AIM

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Spoilers for all works set prior to the end of Avengers: Endgame are unmarked.

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Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.)

In General

Advanced Idea Mechanics

Appearances: Iron Man 3 | Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

A scientific research and development company founded and owned by Aldrich Killian. They are the developers of Extremis, an advanced form of gene therapy that heals and regenerates injuries, deformities, and even psychological damage.

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• Action Bomb: The Extremis soldiers can turn themselves into living explosives.
• Adaptational Wimp: The organization responsible for the creation of such powerful beings such as the Super-Adaptoid, MODOK, and the Cosmic Cube are reduced to a more easily defeated terrorist group albeit with a dangerous formula at their disposal, military subjects and the US Vice President as a mole.
• Biotech Is Better: The Extremis soldiers are able to easily rip apart Tony's armors.
• Blessed with Suck: Extremis makes you virtually unkillable, but it also seems to make you a violently unstable drug addict and you might explode if you're not careful.
• Body Horror: Those who take Extremis have their skin basically turn into magma.
• Burning with Anger: Extremis grants its users fire powers, with Killian being able to actually breath it.
• The Cameo: An Extremis soldier appears as a fighter in Xialing's fight club.
• Corporate Conspiracy: A.I.M. is behind various terrorist attacks falsely attributed to the Ten Rings so Killian can own the War on Terror.
• Demoted to Extra: A.I.M. in the comics is one of Marvel's premiere villain groups. In the MCU they spotlight as major villains for one movie, their role as Iron Man's usual enemy organization being taken by the Ten Rings.
• Elite Mooks: The Extremis soldiers, more dangerous than the average henchmen.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: They have soldiers of both genders and various races among their ranks.
• False Flag Operation: Their ultimate plan, faking attacks by the Ten Rings to gain power within the U.S. government.
• Flawed Prototype: Extremis can grow back limbs, but also turn people into living bombs.
• Foil: To Tony Stark's Iron Man technology, Powered Armor of a modular design that can be fitted with a multitude of weapons. Extremis is an organic superhuman enhancement meant to heal injuries with its Required Secondary Powers serving as weapons.
• Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: Killian intends to sell Extremis for military purposes.
• Healing Factor: The objective of Extremis is to imbue this onto its subjects up to and including regrowing limbs. Extremis-powered agents invoke this to make themselves superhuman (along with being sentient nuclear reactors).
• Human Weapon: The purpose of Extremis; subjects are superhumanly strong, fast, resistant to damage, and can generate enough heat to melt steel. Killian is so powerful he can breathe fire. Unfortunately, three out of four people end up losing control of their powers and just explode. Human weapon can also mean human bomb.
• In Name Only: The only thing this version of A.I.M. shares with its comics' counterpart is its Fun with Acronyms name, while lacking the numerous crimes against nature the comics' A.I.M. commits, its trademark yellow hazmat suit wearing mooks and its leader M.O.D.O.K. (who was later used in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania with a completely different backstory).
• Incendiary Exponent: Extremis, whuch grants its users fire powers.
• Magic Pants: The Extremis soldiers' cloths seem to magically stay unburned.
• No Conservation of Energy: The Extremis regeneration works even when the body doesn't have any obvious source of mass to replace destroyed tissue, let alone possess the required amount of energy to do so and release such an immense amount of heat that can melt metal. Extremis users are never seen eating piles of food or taking in some kind of fuel to sustain them.
• Not Wearing Tights: The organization's iconic beekeeper suits are completely absent from their portrayal here.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Killian and, on a lesser scale, Extremis soldiers can do a lot of damage to a town.
• Playing with Fire: People upgraded with Extremis can generate enough heat to melt metal. One of them can breathe fire.
• Power Glows: Extremis superpowers cause users to glow red, lighting up their skeleton and internal organs. At lower power levels, it can look like Volcanic Veins.
• Power Incontinence: Zig-Zagged. Some Extremis users lose control of their powers due to incompatible genes and/or a willpower deficiency and explode (with their deaths then being explained as Mandarin attacks). Others can control their powers with no such risk.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: One of the effects of Extremis, crossed with Glowing Eyes of Doom.
• Required Secondary Powers: Extremis is just a tissue-regeneration mechanism whose side effects result in extreme durability and heat generation as requirements for said body-part regeneration. Heat is released by all biological processes (which is the source of living body heat as well as the elevated temperatures of a fever) and the heat that would be released by the body as it is regenerating an entire limb in seconds would be tremendous. Similarly, a body physically capable of generating that kind of heat and withstanding the temperatures would be naturally very durable, which lends the Extremis soldiers their strength and toughness on top of tissue regeneration. So in this case, the Required Secondary Powers become the primary powers of the Extremis troops.
• Sociopathic Soldier: All the Extremis goons are former soldiers who lost limbs and more than a few of them are rather psychotic. It's never stated whether it's some kind of long-term side effect of Extremis (Pepper doesn't go nuts), or Killian deliberately sought out this kind of person.
• Super-Power Meltdown: Some of those exposed to Extremis are at risk of exploding.
• Super-Soldier: The Extremis soldiers.
• Super-Strength: One of the benefits of Extremis.

Leadership

Dr. Aldrich Killian / "The Mandarin" (Usurper)

Dr. Aldrich Killian

"I'll own the War on Terror."

Species: Enhanced human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): A.I.M.

Portrayed By: Guy Pearce

Voiced By: Alfredo Gabriel Basurto (Latin-American Spanish dub), Luis Posada (European Spanish dub), Masato Obara (Japanese dub), Lionel Tua (French dub), Frédéric Paquet (Canadian French dub), Viktor Neumann (German dub), Duda Ribeiro (Brazilian Portuguese dub)

Appearances: Iron Man 3

"As I looked out over that city, nobody knew I was there, nobody could see me, no one was even looking. I had a thought that would guide me for years to come: anonymity, Tony. Thanks to you, it's been my mantra ever since. Right? You simply rule from behind the scenes. Because the second you give evil a face—a bin Laden, a Gaddafi, a Mandarin—you hand the people a target."

The founder and CEO of A.I.M., who steals the name of the Ten Rings' legendary leader for his own selfish and shortsighted ends. Seeking revenge against Tony Stark after being stood up by him, Killian crafts an elaborate plan of revenge against Stark that will bring the United States into an international conflict and make A.I.M. the most sought-after company in the defense industry.

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• 90% of Your Brain: Downplayed, but still there. When showing off the "live feed" of his brain, he makes a point to show off a small chunk of his brain that doesn't seem to be used very much. At least, not while he isn't using any Extremis powers.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: A vengeful scientist that Tony was a massive dick to in the past. Lampshaded when Tony points out that one of the major themes of the movie is how we all create our own demons.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: He's way better looking here than he is in the comics.
• Adaptational Badass: Never had powers in the comics.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the comics, Aldrich Killian felt guilty about creating Extremis and killed himself at the start of the story. In the movie, he is instead the very much alive founder of the villainous A.I.M. organization and impersonating the MCU version of the Mandarin.
• Animal Motifs: Dragons. He has them tattooed on his chest and he can breathe fire like one.
• Ascended Extra: Aldrich Killian was a minor character written out within the first few pages of the "Extremis" arc in the comics. The Iron Man 3 version is the main antagonist.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The leader of A.I.M., and the only Extremis Super-Soldier who fights Tony to a stand-still in the Final Battle.
• Ax-Crazy: Only when his blood is really up. Normally, he's rather friendly and calm.
• Badass Boast: Near the end of the film, Killian gives us this (albeit he's lying):
  "No more false faces. You said you wanted 'The Mandarin'...you're looking right at him. It was always me, Tony, right from the start. I AM THE MANDARIN!"
• Badass Bookworm: He was always a brilliant scientist, but he also became an outstanding martial artist after embarking on his quest. He also has super-strength from Extremis.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: After his rise to power, Killian takes to wearing business suits.
• Beard of Evil: Had one during the early stages of Extremis trials, as video evidence shows.
• Beneath the Mask: Killian managed to rebuild himself, both physically and psychologically, into a good-looking, wealthy, confident ubermensch. In the scene where he admits Pepper is imprisoned as his trophy, the mask slips, and we briefly see the nervous, weak Stalker with a Crush he's always been.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Subverted. At the beginning of the third film, it's not clear how much he is working with the Mandarin, but they clearly both have the same general "destroy Tony Stark" goal. In reality, while the Mandarin does exist (as revealed in All Hail the King), the one we see here is a fake, and Killian is behind the whole thing, using the fake Mandarin to cover up his illegal experiments.
• Big "NO!": Twice. First, when Tony Stark seals him in the Mark 42 armor to blow him up. Second, his last words as Pepper sends one of Tony's missiles at him.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Played with. He does call himself the Mandarin, but he's an impostor, and only one of three people known to use the name. He's much closer to Mallen, but never uses that name.
• Composite Character:
  • He invents Extremis like comics Aldrich Killian, but also has the fiery powers of Mallen (the villain of the "Extremis" storyline), and the dragon tattoos, martial arts skills, and Social Darwinist mindset of the Mandarin's modern comic book incarnations.
  • His blonde hair and elitist attitude also bear many similarities to Edwin Cord, Simon Krieger, and Gregory Stark. In the earliest drafts of the movie, he was actually meant to be Krieger (with Edwin Cord assisting him much like Vice President Rodriguez does in the final film), but his name was ultimately changed to Aldrich Killian.
  • A few aspects of his character come from M.O.D.O.K., head of A.I.M. in the comics. Fittingly, in the non-canon video game sequel, he becomes M.O.D.O.K. after his "death" in the film.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Unlike Stane and Vanko who relied on advanced suits of armor to kill Tony Stark in the previous Iron Man films, Killian utilized the Extremis virus that granted him superhuman powers.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: What with being the founder of A.I.M. (terrorist sponsor!) and all.
• Create Your Own Villain: It's Tony Stark's petty joke back in 1999 that sets Killian on his Start of Darkness.
• Diabolical Mastermind: The true mastermind of the film, leading the criminal organization A.I.M. in drumming up fake terrorist attacks.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: He is killed by an Extremis-afflicted Pepper Potts, while in the comics, Killian's death is a suicide.
• Disproportionate Retribution: His whole vendetta is because Stark blew him off once thirteen years ago. His real crime spree is more of a combined cover-up for the failures of A.I.M.'s Extremis technology and scam/racket to create demand for the super-soldiers A.I.M. can supply. Tony's decision to investigate and openly oppose him brings him even more directly into the line of fire.
• The Dog Bites Back: It's not Tony who finishes him off. It's Pepper, whom he kidnapped and injected with Extremis.
• Evil Counterpart: Killian is a brilliant and arrogant weapon designer like Tony Stark, who is attracted to Pepper and has experimented on his own body. However, he uses his creations for evil instead of atoning for past mistakes. Also, in contrast, Killian was insecure and fragile, whereas Tony was just a jerk and so full of himself that he didn't notice his glaring problems.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: He's obviously trying to be the kind of villain who has a horribly and memorably sadistic sense of humor. The problem is that his jokes are dull and labored, even given their sadism.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: Can generate temperatures of up to 3000 degrees with his skin (see Touch of Death below) and in one scene he breathes fire.
• Evil Is Petty: Goes to extreme lengths to spite Tony just because the guy was a jerk to him back on New Year's Eve of 1999.
• Evil Makeover: Became much more sharp-dressed after his Start of Darkness.
• Evil Plan: The payoff of his plotting in Iron Man 3 is to monopolize the War on Terror by supplying both terrorists and the military that hunts them. On a personal level, he wants Pepper to be his trophy and Tony to suffer.
• Expy: His status as a character who steals the mantle of the Mandarin makes him one of Xin Zhang from Iron Man: Armored Adventures.
• Fanservice Pack: Thanks to the Extremis, he's gotten buff.
• Faux Affably Evil: His initial charming demeanor only makes his true spiteful insanity all the more disturbing.
• Foil: Tony is incredibly smooth, born into wealth, and has a heart of gold. Killian used to be a loser, had to work his way up to the top, and is a sociopath.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Goes from being a nerd to a Corrupt Corporate Executive who's the head of A.I.M., and it turns out that this trope is the MO of his plan — to everyone besides the audience and Tony, he's still just a nobody.
• Genius Cripple: Before he co-created Extremis, he needed a cane to walk.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Averted with regards to the Iron Man trilogy. Co-writer Drew Pearce revealed that Killian's line "It was me, from the very start." just refers to his being the mastermind of the Extremis scheme. He was never the real Mandarin — he stole the name from the Ten Rings.
• Green-Eyed Monster: His hatred for Tony comes from his jealousy over Stark's successes.
• Healing Factor: The main power given to him by Extremis. It's powerful enough that he can regrow limbs in seconds and can even recover, albeit severely weakened, from being caught in an explosion.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His development of Extremis backfires big time when Pepper offs him for good.
• I Have Your Wife: He kidnaps Tony's girlfriend Pepper, and the President so that the heroes will stay out of the way.
• Karmic Death: He is killed by Pepper, who was given Extremis powers because of him.
• Kick the Dog: He murders Maya, his chief Extremis researcher, for no reason other than to pile more misery on Tony.
• Lightning Bruiser: Is this due to Extremis. During the final battle, he's able to keep up with an armored-up Tony in hand-to-hand combat (and at one point, dodge a rapid-fire barrage of repulsor blasts from Shotgun, Tony's fastest armor, with ease), and strong enough to easily rip Tony's armors apart with nothing but his red-hot hands.
• Loony Fan: He was Tony's big fan back in 1999, but Tony saw him as a nuisance. He wasn't actually loony, but Tony, being a jerk at the time, just blew him off.
• The Man Behind the Man: He's been preparing for this role for years, ever since Tony snubbed him. His ego means it's pretty clear from the start that he's behind some of the things happening to Tony. In fact, he's the real Big Bad behind all of the things that happen to Tony in Iron Man 3, and assumes the mantle of the Mandarin at the climax (though he's actually not the real one). The apparent Mandarin is just an actor he hired.
• Meaningful Name: A Mandarin was the name for an ancient Chinese "advisor to the King". As "the power behind the throne", this makes the name sort of fitting for Killian, even though he turns out in All Hail the King to have merely stolen it from the real Mandarin. He was likely aware of the meaning behind the name and decided that it suited him well.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: His last name sounds like "Kill" + "Villain" and his first name sounds like "Eldrich".
• Nightmare Face: After surviving getting blown up by the Mark 42 armor, his face is horribly burnt with Glowing Eyes of Doom and Throat Light.
• Playing with Fire: Killian is the closest thing to a fire-elemental supervillain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far, which is especially notable given that past Iron Man villains tended to have no superpowers and instead used Powered Armor, much like Tony.
• Psychopathic Manchild: When you think about it, Killian dragging the entire world into his petty vendetta against Tony resembles a kid setting someone's house on fire for stealing his favorite toy.
• Race Lift: He's a Caucasian man based on modern incarnations of the Mandarin, who's half-Chinese and half-white, although All Hail the King reveals that he himself was never actually the Mandarin.
• Razor-Sharp Hand: In the climax he's clawing and chopping through Tony's armors like a hot knife through butter, because his hands are superheated.
• Revenge Before Reason: He targets Tony Stark in retaliation for Stark's scorning of him and his projects in 1999, even though it's to the detriment of his main plans.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: After his Start of Darkness, he starts wearing business suits.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Pepper didn't recognize him at first; he says he spent five years with a personal trainer. Except that he actually gave himself a Super Serum makeover with Extremis.
• Shrinking Violet: Originally, he was a shy and socially awkward guy.
• The Sociopath: The only clear-cut one in the Iron Man series. Charming, in a superficial, Faux Affably Evil way. Manipulative, lack of morals or empathy (just look what he did to poor Maya). Grandiose sense of self-worth? The guy was trying to own the War on Terror and in a sense thought himself a god. Poor impulse control? He had that largely under control until Tony kinda blew him up — then again, poor Maya.
• Suddenly Shouting: During his last words: "I AM THE MANDARIN!!!" Though he's really not.
• Super Prototype: He uses one against Tony. Specifically, himself. The A.I.M. videos Tony watches imply Killian was the first human test subject of Extremis. Later, Killian is the only one who manages to take Iron Man one-on-one.
• Tattooed Crook: He has a set of dragon tattoos on his chest.
• Throwing Off the Disability: He doesn't need his cane to walk in the present day, thanks to over a decade of physical therapy and/or his Extremis upgrades.
• Took a Level in Badass: Went from a meek cripple to an unfettered Visionary Villain and a fire-breathing One-Man Army.
• Two Decades Behind: In 1999, he has hippie-esque long hair and John Lennon glasses. In 2013, he wears a plaid suit and slicked-back shoulder-length hair.
• The Usurper: He steals the identity of the Mandarin for himself and conducts terrorist attacks under the mantle of the Ten Rings. Needless to say, the real Mandarin is not happy about this.
• Villainous Breakdown: Goes from a calm Manipulative Bastard to a raging madman who screams, "I AM THE MANDARIN!!!"
• Villainous Crush: Has a thing for Pepper, who previously shunned him but now finds him charming.
• Visionary Villain: Claims he wants to use the dangerous Extremis virus to change science, medicine, and war as we know them.
  Tony: You're a maniac...
  Killian: No. I'm a visionary. But I do own a maniac, and he takes the stage tonight.
• War for Fun and Profit: What he's trying to accomplish by offloading his deeds onto a fake terrorist. He seeks to insert himself between the two conflicting sides and profit from the gains he can create via manipulation.
• Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about him without mentioning that he's the real main villain of the film and the "true" Mandarin.
• Wicked Pretentious: He tries to play the part of a worldly, urbane businessman, but it's undermined by his tacky clothes and tattoos, his failure to understand Slattery's Shakespearean background, his general Psychopathic Manchild tendencies coming out when challenged, and most importantly, his bastardized depiction of the Mandarin.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Downplayed considering the petty, sociopathic asshole we see in the film, but he has shades of this, especially during the flashback to 1999, where he was shown as a Wide-Eyed Idealist who wanted to use his genius to aid the world, but his nervous, awkward demeanour and crippled physique made most people blow him off as a loser or a nuisance. It's not hard to imagine how difficult his life was up to that point and it's heavily implied to have fed into his Start of Darkness. He even recalls to Tony that after he realized he was never going to meet him on the rooftop, he was seriously contemplating committing suicide then and there.
  Killian: If you think back to Switzerland, you said you'd meet me on the rooftop right? Well, for the first 20 minutes, I really thought you'd show up. And for the next hour... I considered taking that one-step shortcut to the lobby.
• Would Hit a Girl: He doesn't hesitate to murder Maya when she's about to perform a Heel–Face Turn. He also tries to kill Pepper, despite his feelings for her, when she breaks free from his control. Unfortunately for him, he's too slow.

Scientists

Dr. Maya Hansen

Dr. Maya Hansen

"Look, if we want to launch product next year, I need Stark!"

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): MIT, A.I.M.

Portrayed By: Rebecca Hall

Voiced By: Graciela Gámez (Latin-American Spanish dub), Esther Solans (European Spanish dub), Kanako Tojo (Japanese dub), Marie Zidi (European French dub), Pascale Montreuil (Canadian French dub), Manja Doering (German dub), Maíra Góes (Brazilian Portuguese dub)

Appearances: Iron Man 3

"See, we all begin wide-eyed. Pure science. And then the ego steps in, the obsession. And you look up... you're a long way from shore."

A scientist Tony Stark met (and slept with) in 1999. Her genetic research with plants helped create Extremis.

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• Anti-Villain: She worked with Killian in the hopes that she could create a stable version of Extremis to be used for medical purposes.
• Brainy Brunette: She helped create Extremis, after all.
• Deadpan Snarker: A bit.
  Tony: Please don't tell me there's a twelve-year-old kid wating in the car that I've never met.
  Maya: He's thirteen.
• Death by Adaptation: She survived in the original "Extremis" storyline from the comics. Here, Killian murders her when she gets rebellious. She did, however, die in the comics too in a later storyline.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: She is killed by Aldrich Killian's Extremis, but in the comics, she's killed by an unnamed A.I.M. goon afflicted with Extremis.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Once she sees how far Killian is going regarding Tony and Pepper, she threatens to kill herself if Killian doesn't free them. Unfortunately, Killian opts to just shoot her.
• Evil Genius: No matter what Killian says, she's the actual brains behind Extremis. She's willing to go along with his Evil Plan for the most part, barring her brief Even Evil Has Standards moment.
• Face–Heel Turn: She helped develop Extremis and stayed to work out the kinks, but she seemed to be okay with the whole "fake terrorism" scheme.
• Green Thumb: Downplayed. She's no Poison Ivy, but her plants do demonstrate unusual powers, such as healing, exploding, and feelings that include disliking being touched.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: After learning that Killian injected Pepper with the Extremis, Maya starts to have a change of heart and tries to free Tony. Unfortunately, Killian puts a bullet in her in response.
• Nerds Are Sexy: Otherwise Tony wouldn't be interested in her research, even leaving her some notes while escaping.
• Not That Kind of Doctor: While she is a scientist, Maya is referred to as a botanist, due to her work being using plants to experiment on. She doesn't mind the term being used, mainly because her actual job is quite a mouthful: a biological DNA coder running a team of 40 out of a privately funded think-tank.
• Older Than They Look: Maya never says her age, but unless she is supposed to be a Teen Genius in the 1999 flashback, she has to be at least five to six years older than Rebecca Hall (Hall was born in May of 1982, and would have been 17 at the time of the 1999 flashback scene; and was 30 years old at the time of filming for the movie).
• Professor Guinea Pig: Averted. She never injected herself with Extremis, as shown when she suffers a cut on her forehead and it doesn't heal immediately, as Extremis gives its carriers a Healing Factor. She might have saved herself if she did.
• Stop, or I Shoot Myself!: When she makes her Heel–Face Turn, she threatens to inject herself with a fatal overdose of Extremis unless Killian lets Tony and Pepper go. Unfortunately, Maya had already reached the limits of her own ability to improve Extremis and needed Tony to make any more progress. Killian was aware of this, and since he now already had Tony as his prisoner, he just shoots Maya himself.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: She holds out hope to be able to create a stable version of Extremis for medical purposes.
• Working with the Ex: What her reunion with Tony in the present is for, although she was only a one-night-stand, to begin with. By the time they meet again, he's in a committed relationship.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Why her Stop, or I Shoot Myself! moment fails, although Killian probably would've let her live if she hadn't made herself a liability by making a Heel–Face Turn just then.

Operatives and Test Subjects

Eric Savin

Eric Savin

"You should've pressed the panic button."

^{Click here to see him impersonating Iron Patriot} 

Species: Enhanced human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): US Army, A.I.M.

Portrayed By: James Badge Dale

Voiced By: Carlo Vázquez (Latin-American Spanish dub), Toni Mora (European Spanish dub), Takuya Kirimoto (Japanese dub), Jean-Baptiste Marcenac (French dub), Louis-Philippe Dandenault (Canadian French dub), Léo Rabelo (Brazilian Portuguese dub)

Appearances: Iron Man 3

An Extremis-powered henchman working for Aldrich Killian.

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• Adaptational Villainy: In the comics, he's the cybernetic Anti-Hero known as Coldblood. Here, he's Killian's second-in-command and enforcer.
• Bald of Evil: Notably, he's one of the only bald characters in Iron Man 3, and sadistically cruel.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: He doesn't go by the Coldblood alias like in the comics. However, he poses as the Iron Patriot.
• Composite Character: While based on Coldblood, he is given physical traits and powers akin to Mallen just like Killian was.
• Character Tics: Often chewing gum when wreaking havoc.
• The Dragon: Serves as the villainous Killian's right-hand man.
• Empowered Badass Normal: An ex-soldier turned Extremis supersoldier. Then he wears the Iron Patriot armor on top of it all.
• Faux Affably Evil: Savin could be engaging in brutal combat while joking around, as such in the case when he asked Harley what he wanted for Christmas while holding him hostage, ready to kill him.
• Healing Factor: Courtesy of Extremis. Doesn't save him when Tony blasts his midsection with a Unibeam.
• Oral Fixation: Gum. He's almost always chewing it unless he needs to speak.
• Slasher Smile: He quite clearly enjoys fighting.
• Slouch of Villainy: Seated in the Stark Industries building, he has one leg dangling over one armrest and his head leaning on the other.
• Smug Snake: He's quite arrogant, to say the least.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When using his Extremis powers.
• Torso with a View: Tony inflicts this on him via Chest Blaster.
• Touch of Death: His Extremis powers let him generate temperatures in excess of 3000 degrees Celsius from his skin, allowing him to destroy anything he touches.
• Would Hurt a Child: Casually takes Harley hostage to get something from Tony.

Ellen Brandt

Ellen Brandt

"That's all you got? A cheap trick and a cheesy one-liner?"

Species: Enhanced human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): US Army, A.I.M.

Portrayed By: Stephanie Szostak

Voiced By: Gwendolyne Flores (Latin-American Spanish dub), Mar Nicolás (European Spanish dub), Miki Yamazaki (Japanese dub), Audrey Sablé (French dub), Catherine Hamann (Canadian French dub), Gabriella Bicalho (Brazilian Portuguese dub)

Appearances: Iron Man 3

A war veteran who becomes an assassin after her exposure to Extremis.

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• Ax-Crazy: She doesn't even bother to hide the fact that killing people is a ton of shits and giggles for her.
• Blood Knight: She refers to "the smart way" and "the fun way." Her "fun way" is gruesomely murdering anyone who prevents her from capturing Tony.
• Blown Across the Room: Is sent flying into a power line after Tony causes an explosion by microwaving a pair of dog tags in a room with an open gas valve.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Tony accidentally walks into her five minutes before they meet again to deal each other more injuries.
• Dark Action Girl: She's quite efficient when it comes to hand-to-hand combat.
• Deadpan Snarker: She lampshades Tony's own snark with more snark.
  Ellen Brandt: That's all you got? A cheap trick and a cheesy one-liner?
  Tony Stark: Sweetheart, that could be the name of my autobiography!
• Empowered Badass Normal: An ex-soldier turned Extremis supersoldier.
• Evil Redhead: Her hair's scarlet, and she's definitely got the evil part down. "Fiery" could be a more accurate word.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: If you look closely enough at the above image, you can see a scar on the side of her mouth.
• Mythology Gag: The scars are probably a reference to her face in the comics having been burned off by Man-Thing.
• Impersonating an Officer: She tries to impersonate Homeland Security after "arresting" Tony. Once the local sheriff doubts her, she decides to screw it and show her true colors.
• Nightmare Face: After she walks through a fire started by Tony, especially since she took far more damage than her boss. Sweet dreams.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Somehow manages to move from several feet outside the coffee shop to right next to Tony, who was behind the counter inside the shop, in seconds.
• Oh, Crap!: It takes a minute for her to realize what Tony's planning before she and the building go boom.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When using her Extremis powers.
• Scars Are Forever: The scars on her face are still there despite Extremis giving her a Healing Factor powerful enough to regrow her lost hand. Maybe she wanted to keep them around.
• Sadist: Takes a moment to burn the sheriff's face before killing him.
• Super-Strength: Punches a hole in the Rose Hill sheriff's body when he gets in her way
• Touch of Death: Her Extremis powers let her generate temperatures in excess of 3000 degrees Celsius from her skin, allowing her to destroy anything she touches.

Jack Taggart

Jack Taggart

"Yes, I can regulate."

Species: Enhanced human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): US Army, A.I.M.

Portrayed By: Ashley Hamilton

Appearances: Iron Man 3

A U.S. Army veteran who becomes addicted to Extremis.

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• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: He doesn't go by Firepower, his alias in the comics.
• Race Lift: In the comics, Jack Taggart is African American. In the MCU, he's caucasian.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His Extremis powers flare when angered or alert.
• Super-Power Meltdown: Consumes several doses of Extremis at the same time, causing him to explode and die in the process.
• Touch of Death: His Extremis powers let him generate temperatures in excess of 3000 degrees Celsius from his skin, allowing him to destroy anything he touches.

Unnamed sweat shop agent

Unnamed sweat shop agent

"Savin, I've acquired the Iron Patriot armor."

Species: Enhanced human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): A.I.M.

Portrayed By: Rebecca Mader

Appearances: Iron Man 3

An A.I.M. agent.

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• Disguised Hostage Gambit: Invoked. She poses as a worker at a sweat shop in Pakistan to capture Rhodey Rhodes and get the Iron Patriot armor.
• Evil Redhead: She has red hair and had no problem murdering Rhodey Rhodes to get the Iron Patriot armor.
• No Name Given: She goes unnamed and is credited only as "Sweat Shop Agent".
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When she activates her Extremis powers, her eyes flare orange red.
• Touch of Death: Her Extremis powers let her generate temperatures in excess of 3000 degrees Celsius from her skin, allowing her to destroy anything she touches.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Her whereabouts after acquring the Iron Patriot armor for A.I.M. are unknown. She's never seen afterward.

Collaborators

Trevor Slattery / "The Mandarin" (Usurper)

Trevor Slattery / "The Mandarin"

"Don't hurt the face, I'm an actor!"

^{Click here to see him as the Mandarin}  "Some people call me a terrorist. I consider myself a teacher. America, ready for another lesson?"

Species: Human

Citizenship: British, Ta Loan

Affiliation(s): A.I.M. (formerly), Ta Lo

Portrayed By: Ben Kingsley

Voiced By: Paco Mauri (Latin-American Spanish dub), Mario Gas (European Spanish dub), Mugihito (Japanese dub), Féodor Atkine (French dub), Vincent Davy (Canadian French dub), Sérgio Fortuna (Brazilian Portuguese dub)

Appearances: Iron Man 3 | All Hail the King | Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings | Wonder Man

A washed-up British actor whom Aldrich Killian hires to impersonate the mysterious leader of the international terrorist organization known as the Ten Rings. In his persona as the Mandarin, after years of plotting in the shadows, he seems to come after Tony personally in Iron Man 3.

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• Acting in the Dark: In-universe, he wasn't told the full details of Killian's plot. From what he tells Tony, while the latter is holding him at gunpoint, he was simply a struggling actor in need of a breakthrough role, and he was given a range of luxuries, including various drugs, to keep him ignorant of the true situation. Until Tony explains that the attacks were real, Trevor simply believes that he's on a film set.
  Trevor: The producer told me he worked for the BBC but, ironic twist, it turns out he in fact was a terrorist, and I wasn't playing a character at all.
• Actually Pretty Funny: The true Mandarin originally wanted to kill him for such a ridiculous impersonation, but after capturing him, realized that an insane British thespian impersonator was really more ridiculous than insulting, and kept him around as a sort of Court Jester.
• Addled Addict: His acting career, such as it was, got derailed by his drug and alcohol problems which led to him falling into working for Killian. He eventually got clean while in prison, although he's still a massive Cloud Cuckoolander.
• Adaptational Mundanity: In the comic, the Mandarin's rings are alien weapons that give him various superpowers. In the movie, they're just regular rings that serve no purpose except to look cool. Although it is a bit justified since Trevor Slattery is not the real Mandarin and he is just an actor, and the ten rings that he wears are fake and only part of his acting, and also the true ten rings of the Mandarin appear in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
• Adaptational Wimp: He's missing his magic rings from the comics, and overall comes across as a Non-Action Guy. This is because he's just a figurehead set up by Killian, and Trevor is a coked-up narcoleptic drunken actor. From what we hear in All Hail The King, the real Mandarin was insulted by how useless this guy was as an impostor, although Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings reveals that he was still impressed at the effect he had on the States.
• Affably Evil: Trevor turns out to be pretty friendly, if kooky as hell and more than a tad amoral.
• Ambiguously Brown: In-universe, no one is quite sure about his ethnicity, since his name, tactics, clothes, and accent all come from markedly different cultures. Justified; he's deliberately designed to be the embodiment of what Americans consider an evil anti-American terrorist. While this trope still applies even after The Reveal, due to Kingsley's mixed heritage, one can say that the false Mandarin's mishmash of various cultural motifs was meant to play on this trope.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Befitting his immature personality, Trevor has a really short attention span. He falls asleep all the time and promptly interrupts his own reveal of A.I.M.'s plot to Tony and Rhodey to cheer on the soccer game he's watching on TV.
• Attention Whore: As should be expected of someone who appears on TV to threaten an entire country. He can be seen waving to his "fans" even as he's taken away by the police at the end.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: All the buildup to fighting Killian is thrown out the window when Tony breaks into the Mandarin's hideout, skipping the middleman and going straight for the top. However, it's revealed "the Mandarin" is just an actor playing a fictional terrorist to keep the good guys distracted. Killian is the real Diabolical Mastermind and Big Bad.
• Beard of Evil: Has one very much styled like Colonel Gaddafi or Osama bin Laden. It also doesn't look like it's been well maintained, which makes even more sense once you find out that he's just a drug-addicted actor working for Aldrich Killian, and Slattery generally doesn't look after his health as well as he should.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: He invokes this early on with his "What Is Evil?" moment. It somewhat applies when he's out of character, as the only things that really matter to him are his acting, drugs, and women. It barely seems to occur to him that he's doing something wrong.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He can be silly when he's not being threatening. This is because he's an actor, but he's talented enough that Aldrich Killian is willing to overlook that. In Shang-Chi, he's still a somewhat scatterbrained loon, but is able to understand Morris and successfully guide the heroes to Ta Lo.
• The Bus Came Back: Reappears in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, nearly eight real-world years (and at least ten in-universe, as Shang-Chi takes place post-Blip) since All Hail the King. Surprisingly, he's still alive, and even helps guide Shang-Chi and company to Ta Lo.
• Canon Foreigner: Trevor Slattery doesn't exist in the main Marvel comics universe. Even before he was revealed as a fake, how this Mandarin related to the comics Mandarin was up for debate. He seemed like he should be considered the same character, but his blurrier origin story made it questionable at best.
• Character Catchphrase: Tends to exclaim, "Bloody hell!" when he gets surprised, which is something that "the Mandarin", as he's presented, would never say.
• Classically-Trained Extra: Referenced by him in his speech to Tony. It's explained later that Trevor was quite a respected Shakespearean actor back in England. As Killian says, "His Lear was the toast of Croydon, whatever that means." This was presumably before drug addictions made him nigh-impossible to handle. More likely this is a case of Small Name, Big Ego, since whilst Croydon, a large town in South London, does have a theatre scene, it would be considered much lower in terms of prestige than playing King Lear onstage in Stratford or even London's own West End; compare the difference between On and Off-Broadway.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Outside of the Mandarin persona, he's a drug-addicted loon. Several years later, he's gotten clean thanks to his time in prison, but is still a bit of a weirdo when Shang-Chi, Xialing, and Katy meet him. In particular, he genuinely believes that the ape characters in Planet of the Apes were portrayed by real apes, and he's relieved when others confirm to him that Morris (a faceless furball with wings that speaks in cute chirping sounds) is, in fact, real.
• Comically Missing the Point: When he was a child his mother told him that what happened on Planet of the Apes was not real, but acted, what Trevor understood is that apes were actors.
• Cool Shades: In some of his videos, he wears sunglasses that make him look like an eccentric warlord in the vein of Muammar Gaddafi. The poster of him reclining with them on looks a lot more hilarious after The Reveal, at which point it just looks like Trevor had too much fun the night before and was still a bit high or drunk when he came in to pose for the photo.
• Court Jester: The real Mandarin spares his life because he found him funny. After hearing this, Shang-Chi compares him to a jester.
• Decomposite Character: Trevor's "Mandarin" design is taken from the comics, where he wears mostly green and has ten rings on his fingers. The real Mandarin wears more utilitarian clothes and the real Ten Rings are a set of heavy metal bracers that line his forearms.
• Decoy Leader: Despite pretending to be the Mandarin, he's nothing more than a patsy Killian created to distract everyone from himself.
• Diabolical Mastermind: The self-styled leader of the terrorist organization known as the Ten Rings — except he's not. There is a Mandarin who is the head of the Ten Rings, and he's not happy that Trevor stole his identity.
• Dirty Old Man: He enjoys hiring prostitutes. He offers them to Tony in a desperate attempt to save his own ass.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Played up as the mastermind behind events, but actually a total patsy who barely qualifies as a villain. The true mastermind is Aldrich Killian.
• Disney Death: During the final battle in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Trevor appears to have been killed, with his companion Morris beginning to mourn, only for Trevor to briefly wake up and reveal that he's playing dead. He then tells Morris to do the same.
• Establishing Character Moment: Any of his broadcasts could count, but his "I consider myself a teacher" is the big one; however, that's just a role he plays. Trevor's real moment is when he rushes out of the bathroom, giggling like a kid, and tries to impress his prostitutes with the trivia about how fortune cookies aren't Chinese.
• Everyone Has Standards: By the time of Shang-Chi, Trevor clearly regrets the fact that he played the Mandarin as such a stereotypical middle-eastern caricature, even without factoring in the fact that he was actually working for terrorists.
• Evil Brit: While he's really more amoral than evil, Trevor is a British actor who sports a Scouse accent and uses colloquialisms when not acting as the Mandarin.
• Evil Sounds Deep: He sports a deep, booming, gravelly voice. It's just the voice Trevor uses as the false Mandarin; in reality, he has a stereotypical "crazy old man" voice with a Scouse accent.
• Faux Affably Evil: Despite how politely he may speak, he still engineers terrorist attacks, plane crashes, and the burning of Tony's home to the ground — or so it seems. All of the aforementioned weren't his idea, and he turns out to be more Affably Evil.
• Genius Ditz: This appears to be his real personality. Despite being a washed-up substance-abusing mess, Trevor is a skilled enough actor to at least play the role of a Diabolical Mastermind convincingly.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Subverted. The Mandarin is the leader of the Ten Rings, who are antagonists in the first Iron Man movie, but he doesn't get mentioned by name, let alone seemingly confront Tony, until the third movie. However, Trevor Slattery is not the Mandarin, leaving the real one still in the shadows.
• Hidden Depths: There's a lot more to him than is visible at first glance. Or a lot less, depending on your point of view. Regardless of his copious flaws, he certainly is an astonishing actor.
• Hookers and Blow: He tries to tempt Tony this way; it makes sense, as Killian tempted Trevor himself with drugs and prostitutes.
• In the Hood: Wears an ornate hooded coat when he's in-character as the Mandarin.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Zigzagged. On the one hand, he was imprisoned for his complicity in Killian's plot and being the face for a new terrorist group. Both Tony and Rhodey scared the bejeebers out of him, and his prostitutes. He also received international attention for it because people ate up his performance and complimented it. Then a journalist who comes to interview him is revealed to be a Double Agent for the real Mandarin. Norris says the boss is not pleased about the impersonation. Said agent proceeds to hold him at gunpoint and kidnap Trevor, where he is then brought before Xu Wenwu and nearly executed.
• Knight Templar: His Mandarin persona oozes this mindset: "Some people call me a terrorist. I consider myself a teacher."
• Large Ham: Ben Kingsley at his best and Killian lampshades it. A Justified Trope, since he's a stage actor in-universe. It's even a plot point in Shang-Chi: when he was about to be executed by the actual Mandarin and the Ten Rings, Trevor started doing a hammy performance of Macbeth, and everyone loved it so much they decided to just keep him prisoner, doing regular shows for their entertainment.
  Trevor: [as the Mandarin] You'lll neverrr seee meeeee cominggggg.
• Magic Plastic Surgery: When Tony encounters him in Iron Man 3 he mentions that plastic surgery was one of the many ways Killian spoiled him in exchange for his services, and it's implied that this is the reason no one in the world manages to recognize that "The Mandarin" is just some actor who's acted in Shakespeare on the London stage and has been in at least one unaired television pilot (thus, while an incredibly minor actor In-Universe, there still are people who would know him well and would theoretically recognize him). It's also worth noting that his Real Life actor, Ben Kingsley, hasn't had plastic surgery and just uses his real face for the role, thus making this trope even more in effect.
• Master Actor: He's an incredibly talented actor when he wants to be. This is why he was chosen to play the role of the Mandarin persona in the first place, as the propaganda he spews legitimately terrifies Tony Stark and the U.S. government. Even being imprisoned by Xu Wenwu for about ten years in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings hasn't dulled his edge, as he successfully manages to play dead and fool Morris into believing he didn't make it until he clarifies it for him.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: In-universe example. Outside of the Mandarin persona, he's harmless and fairly friendly. Subverted in the short All Hail The King, where it's revealed that he missed his own mother's funeral because he was waiting for his "big break" in America, cheerily admits to being a pathological liar, acts completely self-absorbed, and overall comes across as an amoral idiot. However, by the time we see him again in Shang-Chi, it seems he Took a Level in Kindness.
• Mouth of Sauron: He's a mouthpiece for Killian, who writes his scripts to help inflame the US State Department's war on terror fears.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The Mandarin gets many lines in trailers and ads that are never said during the actual film. This is most likely to hide his true nature even further, and implies that the Mandarin footage that we saw in the trailer is just B-Roll footage that Killian has filmed for the video packages he then broadcasts on the air. Oh, and by the way, have you seen his Evil Overlooker status for the movie's poster in the main page of Iron Man 3? It's also to make you believe he is the Big Bad.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: He has the name of an imperial Chinese official, a samurai-style haircut, a Middle Eastern-looking beard, brown skin, wears East Asian clothing, wields modern weapons, and talks like a Baptist preacher. Apparently, his tactics are a mishmash of Chinese Art of War, South American guerillas, and Middle-Eastern terrorism, essentially being a hybrid of all of America's enemies in modern history. This is because, as an actor, he's taking cues from various movies. (The Iron Man 3 writers even noted the character's nature as a mishmash of threatening foreign archetypes created by a think tank)
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • A Middle Eastern anti-American terrorist who was formerly under the US's employ, leads an extremist rebel band, sends video broadcasts, and views himself as a cleanser of evil. In-universe, in fact; Trevor's Mandarin is supposedly Killian's attempt to directly draw on his influence.
  • Trevor Slattery himself seems an awful lot like an older Russell Brand.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Both inverted and played straight. Trevor is a scatterbrained nobody who pretends to be a terrorist mastermind. However, a deleted scene on the Blu-ray disc shows that Trevor's smarter than he acts (though still not very bright), and also wrote some of his own dialogue.
• Obliviously Evil: He makes use of this more than once. He uses the fact that "the Mandarin" is just a role to beg for mercy; he honestly had no idea that people were being killed. This is probably why he's in a low-security prison in All Hail the King.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings implies that Trevor does regret portraying the Mandarin as a generic Middle-Eastern terrorist when he discusses what he did with the man's son. Notably, he never tries to portray the fake Mandarin at all during the film.
• Oop North: As stated in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Trevor is from Liverpool, even sporting a Scouse accent in the movie.
• Old Shame: In-Universe. By the events of Shang Chi, Trevor has come to regret his time playing the Mandarin persona, noting that it was a facile and offensive caricuature even before he found out that he was working for real terrorists.
• Playing Possum: While Shang-Chi and his allies are battling the Dweller-in-Darkness and the Soul Suckers, Trevor pretends to be among the people who had their souls sucked out to throw off attention from himself. Morris follows his lead after discovering him.
• Plucky Comic Relief: After The Reveal, he serves up comedy to contrast with Killian taking center stage. It's also the case in Shang-Chi, as the protagonists are forced to get his help, and he's gotten so wacky that even the quirky Katy Chen looks perfectly reasonable next to Trevor.
• Puppet King: It's believed that some of the earlier Ten Rings leaders served as this to him, but it proves to be more the inverse. He's just a figurehead used to divert attention from Killian's plans, and the real Mandarin is still out there.
• Race Lift: In the comics, the Mandarin is half-British and half-ethnic Mongolian, while Ben Kingsley is half-white and half-Indian. Subverted, however; this Mandarin is just an actor impersonating the real one.
• Red Herring: He's just a patsy hired to divert attention from the real threat, Killian. Once a poor, struggling alcoholic actor, Trevor merely poses as the Mandarin in exchange for all sorts of amenities from Killian, including a mansion and a speedboat. Although he's an amoral sleazebag, he's far from truly evil. He even lends his speedboat to Tony and Rhodey, albeit through force.
• The Reveal: The Mandarin as he makes it doesn't exist; he's a Red Herring for Killian, who claims to be the real Mandarin. However, in All Hail the King, it's revealed that both Trevor and Killian only stole the Mandarin's name; the real one, Xu Wenwu, is still out there.
• Ring of Power: Invoked with his ten rings. In the comics, they give him alien technological energy attacks. In this version, they serve as a symbol of his leadership over the terrorist organization the Ten Rings. In truth, they are merely part of his costume.
• Rogue Agent: Claims to be a former Western intelligence officer who ran morally questionable ops on behalf of the West, before he went "off the reservation" and started his own private war against America. He's actually a British actor.
• The Scapegoat: Technically, Trevor wasn't responsible for the Extremis plot; it was Killian who came up with the idea to play on people's racism and fear of terrorists. The real Mandarin, however, doesn't care; apparently he was insulted by the fact that a drunk and Addled Addict was stealing his name, and image. He sends Jackson Norris to kidnap Trevor and reassure him that he's not going to die, not now at least… but he'll be wishing he was dead. Ultimately, though, Wenwu realizes Trevor's not to blame and decides to keep him around to perform as the Ten Rings' court jester.
• Scheherezade Gambit: After being captured by the Ten Rings and slated for execution, he managed to impress Wenwu with a spontaneous rendition of Macbeth, enabling him to survive as the Ten Rings' court jester.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Once he is revealed just to be a drunk, washed-up actor and Tony gets information about Killian from him, the comedy leaves with him for the rest of the movie, which changes the format drastically. This also applies to his role in Shang-Chi, where Trevor doesn't take part in the intense final battle and spends it playing dead.
• Stupid Evil: In All Hail The King, this is how he comes across. He is superficially charming but incredibly shallow and self-absorbed, doesn't seem to be bothered by the deaths of those around him (including his own mother), and is genuinely clueless as to why anyone would want to kill him even after they explain their reasons to his face. "Evil" might be a stretch, perhaps, but Trevor is certainly, at the very least, a Jerkass at his core.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In All Hail the King, he's let fame go to his head and becomes an egotistical in-house celebrity with an attitude. It comes back to bite him hard. To the point years as a prisoner of the Ten Rings make him return to being a nice person when he's brought back.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Being imprisoned by the actual Ten Rings for over a decade seems to have made Trevor a significantly kinder person, as he acts quite chummy with Shang-Chi and his friends when they meet him and serves as a Translation Buddy for Morris, thus helping them find his mother's village.
• Too Kinky to Torture: For a drunken British actor, he's remarkably composed and unfazed even while being repeatedly threatened with a gun shoved in his face. All the alcohol and drugs he's taken probably helped with that.
• Villain Episode: He's featured as the lead character of the Marvel One-Shot All Hail the King (an extra feature on the Thor: The Dark World Blu-Ray), taking place after the events of Iron Man 3.
• Visual Pun: At one point, he's seen with a fruit bowl full of, you guessed it, Mandarin oranges.
• Walking Spoiler: Knowing too much about him spoils the reveal that he's just an actor whom Killian hired to serve as a Red Herring. And he's still a surprise presence when brought back in Shang-Chi, as the trailers and posters didn't want to even hint at it.
• What Is Evil?: He pulls the moral relativism card during his ultimatum in the first trailer.
  "The Mandarin": Lesson number one: Heroes. There is no such thing.
• Wicked Cultured: He's quite cultured for a terrorist. It's not really surprising, since he's just an actor. Then again, he spends most of his time worrying not about intelligent matters, but about drugs, alcohol, sex, and football games...
• Would Hurt a Child: Subverted. In his first appearance as the Mandarin, he mentions that his attack on the air base in Kuwait specifically targeted the spouses and children of military personnel who were away on orders. Trevor himself doesn't know that this attack actually happened, since he's only acting, and he shows no indication of wanting to harm children as his true self.

Vice President Rodriguez

See the United States Government page

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