Ben Kingsley’s Supervillain Beard Returns in First ‘All Hail the King’ Clip

By  · Published on January 16th, 2014

Marvel is everywhere right now. Everywhere. You can’t take two steps without hearing how Johnny Depp might be Doctor Strange or how the actor who just shared a steamy on-screen romance with Matt Damon will now share a steamy on-screen romance with a few ant farms’ worth of insects or how Abraham Van Helsing will glare and shake his fist menacingly at the Avengers or how Johnny Depp probably won’t be Doctor Strange. Also Michael Pena is up for an Ant-Man role, and that’s neat.

But as a wise man once said, when you have access to Sir Ben Kingsley, use Sir Ben Kingsley. That hasn’t been forgotten in all this Marvel mayhem, as the first clip from the one-shot All Hail the King is now available for our viewing consumption. Written and directed by Iron Man 3 screenwriter Drew Pearce, the short stars Kingsley as (and this would be a spoiler, obviously, to those who haven’t seen Iron Man 3) Trevor Slattery, the party-hardy thespian who posed as the Mandarin for the bulk of the film.

Despite All Hail the King finding Slattery locked down in Seagate prison, his troubles are only beginning. According to Pearce:

“Imagine a real terrorist organization whose beliefs were long held and religious for thousands of years, and imagine a drunk, British actor coming along and essentially telling the world that he’s the face of your organization. I think they would be right to be quite angry.”

So we may have a real Mandarin coming our way by the end of the short. Maybe even a Luke Cage, as Seagate is the same penitentiary where the future Netflix hero begins his particular origin story. But for right now, satisfy yourself with the first minute or so of All Hail the King, with a little Scoot McNairy, a little Kingsely, and a funky title card.

Enjoy it over at EW, (as the clip isn’t yet embeddable) and be sure to look for the entire short once Thor: The Dark World releases to home video/DVD/Blu-Ray/instantaneous mind-link on February 25.

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