Like most everyone else, I’ve recently seen Iron Man 3. Like most everyone else, I have my theories about this movie. This one is about The Mandarin.
I propose that the Ben Kingsley version of The Mandarin was in fact the real Mandarin.
In the comics, when Mandarin found the rings, he found them in an alien ship left behind by the alien race the dragon Fin Fang Foom came from. He studied the alien technology and rings for years before deciding to take over China. In the movies, he may be at a point where he has just decided to start amassing an army to start taking over a nation and has decided to keep a low profile so as not to alert The Avengers to his presence.
In 1999, when the movie opens, Killian is looking for a buyer for his experimentation. I think The Mandarin found him and used his Mento-Intensifier ring to start manipulating Killian. Over the years Killian’s terrorist army grew under the watchful eye of The Mandarin. Soon Killian began getting thoughts that he himself was The Mandarin and also began forming the plan that made up the plot of Iron Man 3. All this time, the real Mandarin was watching, waiting, and when the time was right, revealed his face to the world as The Mandarin. The VP ascension plot would have left him with a pawn in the White House that would allow him to start taking over from the inside. Then Stark got involved. Mandarin’s having a good time with some ladies without his rings on and bam, there’s Tony, in his room. Played wrong, all his hard work would be done. So he fabricates the lies of being an actor. Even his arrest at the end was a lie. His Mento-Intensifier ring has the ability to manufacture illusions.
With his army disbanded and plot destroyed, he recognized that now was not the time to try and take over. So he’ll go back into the shadows and wait letting Killian take the fall as The Mandarin and brains behind the operation. As for Killian, he had listened to the real Mandarin’s lies so much that he had come to believe them. When he said he was The Mandarin, he believed that.
The real Mandarin was Ben Kingsley’s character and could still show up in the future.