Who remembers the Marvel One Shots?
These short films, released as extras on MCU DVD releases, were in many ways the forerunners of the Disney Plus shows we have today. It’s surprising that the streamer hasn’t made them all available on the platform. However, D+ did just add one of the five that were produced from 2011- 2014. Namely, the final – and arguably most important – one, All Hail the King; it can’t be a coincidence it’s debuted just a week ahead of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
As of this Friday, All Hail the King is now available to steam on D+ in most territories. A follow-up to Iron Man 3, the short is ostensibly about a documentary filmmaker interviewing the incarcerated Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), AKA the fake Mandarin who worked for Aldrich Killian. However (spoilers!) it turns out the filmmaker is really an acolyte of the true Mandarin, angry over Slattery’s identity theft, who kidnaps the failed actor from jail.
All Hail the King was important for MCU lore as it established that Killian wasn’t the Mandarin and the real one, much closer to the comic book character, was out there somewhere. And now we’re finally about to meet him in Shang-Chi. The Simu Liu vehicle will reveal that the eponymous martial arts master is the son of Wenwu/the Mandarin, a crime boss who possesses ten arm bands that imbue him with powers.
What’s more, it’s been confirmed Kingsley is reprising his role as Slattery for the third time, including All Hail the King, in Shang-Chi. Adding the short to Disney Plus at this time allows fans to watch all the relevant material they need for a proper lead-in to Destin Daniel Cretton’s movie. If you’re looking to do this yourself, you might want to check out Iron Man, which introduces the Ten Rings organization, Iron Man 3 and All Hail the King.
Now we just need Disney Plus to add the other four Marvel One Shots – that’s The Consultant, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer and Agent Carter (a kind of mini-pilot for the ABC show).
