How Marvel lured back Ben Kingsley for his Shang-Chi role

Among the many great actors in Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings, Sir Ben Kingsley was a standout. Kinglsey made his first MCU appearance in Iron Man 3, when he posed as the head of the Ten Rings organization. Later in the movie, Tony Stark discovered that he was not, in fact, the Mandarin, but rather a paid actor named Trevor Slattery who was paid to pose as the face of the organization. In Shang-Chi, we finally got to see Trevor being himself, and it was absolutely hilarious.

However, it wasn’t completely a given that Ben Kingsley would return to the MCU. It was up to director Destin Daniel Cretton to make it happen, but luckily it didn’t take much convincing. “He said, ‘Hold on, someone’s shouting at me from the other room,'” Cretton recently told Entertainment Weekly. “He stopped talking to me, and I heard a voice shouting from the other room, saying, ‘Who’s on the phone? Who are you talking to?’ He says, ‘I’m talking to Destin from Marvel Studios. He wants you to be in the next movie.’ And I realized he was playing Trevor in the room. He was talking to Trevor, and Trevor was asking who he was talking to, and then I heard Trevor say, ‘Of course I’ll be in that movie. When do we leave?'”

Ben Kingsley was eager to be in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

And the rest is history. Kinglsey didn’t do any promotion for the film but did attend the red carpet event, making fans suspicious that they would see Trevor again. And as we all saw, he had a larger role than any of us could have possibly imagined. Not only did he reveal that his furry friend Morris could guide Shang-Chi and co. back to his mother’s village, but he also tagged along for the ride.

With the cat out of the bag, Marvel even unveiled official character posters for both Trevor and Morris this week:

Trevor didn’t necessarily seem like the type of character who needed to have a reoccurring role in the MCU. But now that he’s back, I’m hoping he’s here to stay. Maybe he’ll be a part of the crew again whenever it’s time for the inevitable Shang-Chi 2.

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h/t SyFy Wire