Irons In The Fire

With Iron Man 2 now safely in theaters director Jon Favreau is now talking Iron Man 3 to MTV

He admits that he has no idea what the film will look like until after Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The Avengers come out in theaters.

Favreau does confirm he would still like to have the metal man's arch-nemesis The Mandarin as the film's villain. Favreau also admits that the character from the comics will require some reworking, even though he's been setting up Mandarin's presence in both films

The Mandarin's late father was one of the wealthiest men in pre-revolutionary mainland China (and a descendant of Genghis Khan), while his late mother was a noblewoman. Their son was born in an unnamed village in mainland China before the Communist revolution. The boy's parents died soon after his birth, and he was raised by his (paternal) aunt, who was embittered against the world and raised him with much the same attitude. Every last bit of the family fortune was spent obsessively training the Mandarin in science and combat, with the result that he was completely broke upon reaching adulthood. Unable to pay the taxes on his ancestral home, The Mandarin was evicted by the government.

Hoping to find a means of revenging himself upon the civilization that had taxed him and rendered him homeless, the Mandarin explored the forbidden "Valley of Spirits," where no one had dared to set foot for centuries. There he found the skeleton and starship of Axonn-Karr, an intelligent dragon-like alien from the planet Maklu-4, who had come to Earth centuries ago and died. Over the following years, the Mandarin studied Makluan science until he mastered it. He also learned how to use the ten rings he found within the starship which were apparently its propulsion source, among other things. The Mandarin then became a conqueror and subjugated the villages around the Valley, and, through his advanced science, rapidly became a power that not even the Chinese Army could successfully challenge. He then embarked on a long series of attempts to achieve world domination.

Yeah I would say Mandarin'a back story needs a film rework....