More Possible ‘Iron Man 3′ Plot Info Emerges

Okay, so who exactly is Tony Stark/Iron Man facing in the third movie? All of the cast is coming together but we're still not really sure who the villain is. Scratch that, what we meant to say is that most comic fans know who's going to be the villain in 'Iron Man 3,' but for some reason Marvel's taking a long time to announce it. Today we may have finally gotten our confirmation.

It's been long rumored that the antagonist in 'Iron Man 3' would be The Mandarin. We're not referring to a hotel, we're talking about an actual character. In the Iron Man Marvel comics, The Mandarin is a man hell-bent on taking over the society (and possibly the world) that once cast him out, annihilating anything in his way with the aide of his ten super powered rings he found within the "Valley of the Spirits."Ben Kingsley is supposedly cast in the role, but how do we know that? Just through an additional bit of IMDB information, that's how.

Comic Book Movie discovered that Chinese actor Andy Lau is now a part of the cast for 'Iron Man 3,' but it's the information on his unnamed scientist character that gives it all away.

The film will have location shooting in Beijing and Shanghai, it will narrates that the daughter of Robert Downey Jr.’s friend (Lau) was kidnapped and brought to China, in order to save his friend’s daughter, he flew over from America to China to seek help from Andy to strengthen his abilities to fight The Mandarin. You will see Iron Man fly over The Great Wall of China, National Palace Museum and other landmarks in Shanghai, the film is expected to hit the cinemas in May 2013.

Others that have been recently added onto the cast include Bingbing Fan (wife of the scientist) and Yang Mi (the scientist's assistant). So yes, at this point this pretty much confirms that The Mandarin will be in 'Iron Man 3.' Since Marvel has Ben Kingsley down as one of their main villains, it's safe to say he's The Mandarin.

Now with this new villain/story discovery, 'Iron Man 3' may either be a great story or a little too bloated. We already know it's dealing with the Extremis story arc that's supposedly connected with whatever dastardly plot The Mandarin has in store for Iron Man. And let us not forget The Mandarin isn't the only villain in the movie. It was just reported the other day that James Badge Dale is in talks to play Coldblood, so whatever schemes The Mandarin has going on he'll more than likely have to incorporate Eric Savin/Coldblood into it. But since we're in a post-'Avengers' world, surely Marvel can tie this up into a neat little two hour package, right?

'Iron Man 3' is expected to begin filming at some point later on this month.