With the death of Tony Stark AKA Iron Man in Avengers Endgame, fans might have lost all hope that his real arch-nemesis will ever get to see the light of day in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Thankfully, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has confirmed that there are indeed plans for the iconic Iron Man villain, the Mandarin.

During an AMA on the r/Marvel subreddit, Feige was asked this question by user @GentlemanGearGrinder:

Without going into details about developing projects, are there any plans to incorporate the Ten Rings from the first Iron Man, or the “real” Mandarin teased in “All Hail the King” in the future?

Feige responded with a simple, “Yes,” but it was enough to spark further intense fan debate in the subreddit. Some even speculate that the Mandarin could be the main antagonist of the upcoming Shang-Chi movie as part of the MCU’s Phase Four slate.

2013’s Iron Man 3 introduced a reviled twist in which the Mandarin was revealed to be an actor named Trevor Slattery at the command of the movie’s true antagonist, Aldrich Killian. However, the short movie All Hail The King established that the real Mandarin was still somewhere out there in the MCU.

It will be interesting to see how Marvel Studios will decide to depict the Iron Man villain. Still, it’s an unfortunate shame that we will never get to see Iron Man himself go up against his arch-enemy in a live-action setting.

For now, all we really know for sure is that the Mandarin will return. We’ll have to wait until Feige and Marvel Studios reveal their plans for the MCU’s Phase Four to find out what the future holds for the Mandarin.

For more on Avengers Endgame, check out our spoiler-free review of Avengers: Endgame here, our discussion for what’s next post-Avengers Endgame here, or the upcoming movies you can look forward to in the MCU Phase Four (4) post-Avengers Endgame here, or what the future holds for the MCU cast we all know and love here.