The Hidden Marvel Trilogies

In honor of the release of Marvel’s newest outstanding origin story, Wonder Man, we here at The Film Encomium thought it was an appropriate time to introduce you all to one of our favorite features of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and beyond): The Hidden Trilogies.

Conventional wisdom will tell you that there are at least five trilogies in the MCU. Ant-Man, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Captain America, and The Guardians of the Galaxy are all indisputably on the list. Additionally, some Marvel diehards will argue that you can count Infinity War and Endgame as a single entity to include The Avengers in the discussion—for a few more months, at least—or that Thor: Love and Thunder should be viewed as a spinoff of the first three Thor films rather than an extension of them. Depending on your view of those two arguments, there are 5-7 in the MCU, as well as arguments for non-MCU Marvel films that would expand the list to include Deadpool, Blade, two X-Men entries, and two additional Spider-Man entries (no, we aren’t mistakenly including Andrew Garfield, you are forgetting about Nicholas Hammond). 

This means that, if you accept all reasonably proposed arguments, there are as many as 13 full, relatively straightforward trilogies which have currently been released as adaptations of Marvel Comics. What we are presenting to you today are the two worthy trilogies that were built in the shadows; through a combination of happenstance and hindsight. These two hold their own with any of the more discernible triads to spring from those pages, and in doing so exemplify the interconnectivity that make tales of superheroes so immortally alluring. 

If you are a Marvel fan who is searching for a new entrance to the rabbit hole, give one of these a try…

The Mandarin Trilogy

The Films: 

1. Iron Man 3 (2013)

2. All Hail the King (2014)

3. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

The Pitch: 

Let’s address the tiny elephant in the room first. Short films are valid films, and if you don’t understand that for an indisputable fact, we at The Film Encomium don’t like you very much. Nothing about including a short film would delegitimize a trilogy’s standing as a trilogy, and there is not an intelligent argument against that. 

Good, now that we’ve got that handled, let's dive into this first group of films. Since its release, Iron Man 3 has been derided by some of the more passionate Marvel fans, largely for its sloppy handling of the primary antagonist and our trilogy’s namesake—The Mandarin. In a bizarre sort of low stakes bait-and-switch, they chose to double-whitewash a character who was supposed to be descended from Genghis Khan, first with a moderately acceptable turn by Ben Kingsley and then for roughly fifteen seconds as Guy Pearce in the film’s final act. It was a rough landing that left a bitter taste in the mouth of many who had adored one of Iron Man’s greatest enemies and found this representation of an iconic character to be fairly reductive. 

Luckily, Marvel started covering their tracks for this misstep fairly quickly, releasing the fifth installment of their One-Shot series less than a year later. All Hail the King makes a quick check-in on Trevor Slattery—the actor hired to play The Mandarin in Iron Man 3—as he navigates both celebrity and prison life. It would be the better part of a decade before they actually made good on their promise to give us a “real” Mandarin, but this formalized look towards the horizon helped many fans to reserve some of that potential resentment until a later date.

That later date finally arrived in 2021 with the debut of what is still one of the most frequently underrated yet simultaneously beloved films in the entire MCU: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. This stunning martial arts epic introduced us to a bevy of colorful new people and places, including finally giving The Mandarin a portrayal worthy of his legendary status, compliments of acting legend Tony Leung Chiu-wai. It serves as a vital and poignant conclusion to a long and wandering journey, and as much as any other film named in this article, this really does the work of forming this into one full, functioning storyline. 

A transcendent experience, and the first time you watch it all in one manageable binge, you will walk away convinced that roughly half of all three-movie plots should embrace the practice of a short film climax. Much like the concept of Awkwafina having a major role in a big budget martial arts film, it’s hard to say why it works, you just know it does when it is in front of your eyes.

The Spiderweb Trilogy

The Films:

1. Spider-Man (2002)

2. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

3. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

The Pitch:

This could also be called just “The Trilogy of Neverending Heartbreak” but it just doesn't have the same Spider-ring to it. Still, that’s as compelling an argument as any that this is truly representative of Peter Parker as our lord and savior Stan Lee intended him. In a world littered with superhero orphans, simply losing your parents was old hat for Spidey. He lost his parents before the origin story even started, his supergrowth has to involve the world taking from him even more relentlessly. 

What a viewing of these films in this order will bring you is the same sort of quest that any great Spider-Man story will take you on. It always starts so small; in a world where figuring out what is right and wrong are simple and easy. Even when Peter doesn’t know what to do, the audience can tell him how and why he is being a doofus. 

It never stays that way, though. Life and love get in the way. Problems breed problems and the solutions to those problems just breed more problems themselves. Things get tangled and messy, to the point that we don’t know what Peter should do anymore than he does. We find ourselves even more drawn into a character whose traumas we now associate with our own. The growth that happens in the friendly neighborhood is not the calculated growth of adulthood, but rather the chaotic and terrifying growth that was foisted upon us by nature in our teenage years.  

All of that is just to tie your soul to Spidey, though. The reason this character resonates so well across demographics and age groups is that there is a part of every single one of us that will feel like just a kid in over their heads. You spend a couple acts getting transported back into the insecurity of youth, and then BOOM. Just when they catch you identifying with the vulnerability of it all, there’s a concept like the multiverse to deal with. You get to see that reflected in your own challenges, and together with Peter you come to the realization that everyone you meet is also just a dumb kid from some neighborhood, walking around terrified that everyone else will spot them for who they are beneath their mask. 

Hamlet would tell us that the purpose of playing these roles is to hold up a mirror to nature, and in that artistic pursuit, Spider-Man has always thrived. Perhaps that is why these stories so often hit the soul like a classic tragedy. Hope, faith, and being able to get out of bed in the morning come easier before one has to combat loss, guilt, and the grating presence of a cruel world on the other side of your front door. To process and understand that all, yet still go spend your days trying to be a force for good in the world is what we should all aspire to. 

The next time you forget that, give this hidden trilogy a watch through. Spidey will get you back on track. 

~The Film Encomium~