Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 is not the best MCU film, yet there is a fanbase who still holds it in high regard. The Iron Man threequel saw an anxiety-ridden Tony Stark come face to face with the consequences of his past life and the threats brought in by his charades as an outspoken and explicitly candid superhero.

However, the film’s take on the iconic Marvel Comics villain Mandarin fell flat. Iron Man 3 started with putting Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian as Tony’s direct adversary while working with Ben Kingsley’s Mandarin, who also was the leader of the Ten Rings organization. But, in a twist of events, the film revealed Ben Kingsley to just be a decoy, with Killian assuming the role of Mandarin in the climax.

Fans weren’t happy with how Mandarin’s storyline turned out to be within the live-action universe of Marvel characters. But, recently, with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Marvel Studios corrected that mistake, retconning the Ten Rings’ existence since Iron Man (2008) while also linking events from All Hail The King. Tony Leung’s Wenwu/Mandarin was introduced as the Ten Rings’ leader, explaining his and his organization’s history spanning a thousand years.

And now that those misdirections from Iron Man 3 are fixed and all loopholes filled, Guy Pearce has expressed his interest in returning to his role of Killian in the MCU. In an interview with ComicBook.com, Guy Pearce expressed how his character from the film may still exist in the MCU, and that Killian’s unusual end may still make it conceivable for the studio to validate his return. He said:

I'd be very much interested in to see him come back. And I think because of the nature of the character that he is, it's totally conceivable that he could come back. So yes, I would love to see what he is up to, as well. Because he's somebody – obviously as we saw in Iron Man 3 – went through a sort of rapid vast change from the beginning of the story. So who knows where he's ended up.

At the end of Iron Man 3, Killian was exposed to an overdose of Extremis virus, with which he had infected Pepper earlier, resulting in him being blown into the air. There’s no telling if the character’s survival can be justified or not, but if it could be, Guy Pearce’s return wouldn’t be a problem, given that the Mandarin issue is fixed.

Can Guy Pearce’s Killian Return?

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Marvel isn’t too kind to the villains it kills off. Hardly any major villain killed at the end of the battle against the heroes has made a comeback; besides Thanos, who used time travel to devastate Earth after being killed in the current timeline. However, with Marvel moving towards a multiverse with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, there is every possibility of Killian returning if the studio ever wishes so.

The studio had already brought back Ben Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery from Iron Man 3, dealing with his story arc after he was apprehended by Jackson Norriss. The Extremis virus already exists, which was proven in Shanh-Chi, which featured a character infected with it in Xu Xialing’s fighting club. On top of it, Killian’s venture Advanced Idea Mechanics, or A.I.M has great significance in the comics. The organization has also been mentioned in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and most recently in Loki, wherein a shovel from the third millennium developed by A.I.M shows up in the 19th century. This means that A.I.M. has a presence in alternate realities, some of which will be explored in the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel.

Hence, with the way the storyline of MCU as a cinematic universe is shaping up, there is definitely room for Aldrich Killian to make another villainous appearance. For now, the one project that can justify this reappearance would be Armor Wars which would feature a storyline where Stark technology falls into the wrong hands, bringing his friend and confidante, James Rhoades/War Machine into action.

Whether the studio will pick up on Pearce’s desire or not is entirely up to fate. Given the packed release schedule of the franchise in the next two years, it could be challenging to add Pearce into any story, unless the writers find a way just to fit him someplace, even if it is in a cameo. Till then, Guy Pearce can hope that he’ll get a call back after almost a decade since Iron Man 3.