Trevor Slattery

   This is an article about the actor hired to impersonate the Mandarin. For his employer, who claimed to be the Mandarin's true alter ego, see Aldrich Killian. For the true leader of the Ten Rings see Mandarin.

"Ladies, children, sheep... Some people call me a terrorist. I consider myself a teacher. Lesson number one: Heroes, there is no such thing."

- Trevor Slattery

Trevor Slattery was an actor with drug addictions and legal problems until he was approached by the scientist Aldrich Killian to pose as the Mandarin, the idealized perfect terrorist. Taking responsibility for the widespread accidents caused by Killian's experiments, the Mandarin persona convinced people that he was in command of the infamous terrorist organization known as the Ten Rings, eventually becoming the most feared terrorist in the West. However, neither Killian nor Slattery knew that the Mandarin was real.

An Actor
"I know it's a little over the top sometimes. It's not entirely my fault; he has a tend... he's... he's a stage actor. They say his Lear was the toast of Croydon, wherever that is."

- Aldrich Killian about Slattery

Trevor Slattery was a small-time British actor whose biggest claim to fame was the lead role in an unsold 1985 CBS pilot called "Caged Heat" until he was approached by the wealthy scientist named Aldrich Killian, the founder of the Advanced Idea Mechanics. Killian wanted to exact revenge on Tony Stark, the CEO of Stark Industries, but he needed to masquerade his failed experiments with the Extremis virus as terrorist attacks. So he needed someone, a feared terrorist who would publicly take responsibility for those attacks.

Killian gave Slattery a plastic surgery so no one could recognize him, and from that day on, Slattery posed as the Mandarin, a terrorist leader affiliated with the Ten Rings organization. Whenever one of Killian's experiments with Extremis would fail, causing explosions and a great number of civilian casualties, the Mandarin would show up on tv and say that this was "another lesson" for the American people.

The Mandarin
"I'm gonna offer the choice: do you want an empty life, or a meaningful death?"

- The Mandarin

Between the two performances, Slattery would spend his time in the company of prostitutes, enjoying an endless supply of drugs and alcohol. When Jack Taggert injected himself with Extremis and exploded before the Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, the Mandarin announced in one video that he was responsible for the explosion. In another video he threatened to kill an accountant from the Roxxon Oil Company if President Ellis of the United States failed to call him within 30 seconds. Although the president complied with the request, the Mandarin ignored the call and, in a mock execution, pretended to shoot the man in the head.

Since Tony Stark's friend Happy Hogan was severely injured by Killian's Extremis enhanced henchman Eric Savin during Jack Taggert's fiery blast, Tony challenged the Mandarin to a fight using the news. Killian then accepted the challenge by sending three heavily armed helicopters to destroy Tony's mansion.

When Killian's men captured James Rhodes and stole the Iron Patriot armor, Savin took the armor and boarded Air Force One and kidnapped President Ellis. The Mandarin then released another video showing the President in the armor hanging above an oil tanker, threatening to blow up the tank on Christmas Day.

Captured
"Don't shoot me in the face, I'm an actor."

- Trevor Slattery to Tony Stark

However, Stark invaded the mansion the Mandarin was residing in. He found his target in the company of two prostitutes, and after pressing him for information, the Mandarin told him that the whole thing was just theatre all along. Slattery told Stark that the whole Mandarin persona was just a role he plays in return for the lavish lifestyle, a speedboat and a copious amount of drugs.

Slattery then gave up what little information he knew of Killian's plan, denying what he had divulged immediately after, and then went back to his slovenly habits for a few hours. However, when Savin arrived to the mansion, the Mandarin lied about what he said to Stark.

A few hours later, Stark returned with his military friend, Colonel Rhodes, who had been vainly searching the Middle East for the phantom terrorist, and who accosted him once more on the subject of the Mandarin and Killian. Slattery was apprehended shortly thereafter by local law enforcement officers, and was led drunkenly away through a crowd of onlookers and the press. He enjoyed having the attention from so many people.

Incarceration
"There's somebody who wants to meet you." "Do I know him?" "No. You took his name and now he wants it back." "Ahh. No, sorry, I still don't get it."

- Jackson Norris and Trevor Slattery

Slattery was incarcerated at Seagate Prison, where he was interviewed in his cell by a documentarian. Ironically, in confinement he finally found the fame and notoriety he had always sought.

Persona
"You don't know who I am. You will never see me coming."

- Mandarin

The Mandarin persona was devoted to studying the works of Sun Tzu and insurgency tactics. He surrounds himself with dragons and symbols of warlords and Chinese iconography because he wants to represent the prototypical terrorist who is out there doing field work, supervising atrocities for the intelligence community who went nuts in the field. He became a devotee of war tactics, and surrounded himself with a group of people over which he presides, and the only thing that unifies them is their hatred of America. In his attempt to rid the world of its oppressors by replacing them, The Mandarin considers himself a twisted version of absolute good.

Relationships

 * Aldrich Killian - Employer
 * Iron Man - Enemy
 * Iron Patriot - Enemy
 * Ten Rings - Enemies
 * Mandarin - Enemy
 * Jackson Norris - Interviewer turned enemy
 * Herman - Fan and butler
 * Fletcher Heggs - Fan
 * White Power Dave - Enemy

Trivia

 * Kevin Feige has said that the Mandarin was considered for the main villain during the writing stages of  Iron Man. He also said that they avoided making him too similar to his comic book counterpart as they did not want him to be a Fu Manchu-esque stereotype.  Eventually the idea of adding the Mandarin as a villain in any of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films was almost completely removed because Jon Favreau thought that the Mandarin wouldn't feel as realistic as the films were meant to be. He felt only in a sequel, with an altered tone, would the fantasy of the Mandarin's rings be appropriate.
 * Slattery has a tattoo of Captain America's Shield on his neck. It has been noted that in place of the star is an "A", the symbol for anarchy. Kevin Feige has said that the Mandarin uses "symbolism of various cultures and iconography that he perverts for his own end." A popular theory is that he is attempting to twist the ideals the shield represents. This fits in with the speech that he gives in the trailer.