Shaun Toub Is Prof. Yinsen & More Iron Man Armor News
Apr 21, 2007 by Vic Holtreman
I have it on good authority that Shaun Toub is not playing the Mandarin in Iron Man but is instead playing the part of Professor Yinsen, another prisoner of the terrorists in the film and the man who helps Tony Stark develop the first version of the armor.
Here’s the scoop from a reliable source:
“Shaun Toub is playing Dr. Yinsen, another prisoner of the terrorists. I will also say that Tony will be wearing the suit for more than protection from the outside but also to help with a new internal problem. That first suit does not have the famous repulsor beams but has rather more of conventional weapons, two hot ones. It does however the power to fly!”
IMDB.com does not yet show a character listed for Toub.
He also states that Terrence Howard will be playing an Air Force Lt. Colonel in the movie.
It makes sense to me that they would cast Yinsen as being of Middle Eastern descent, and although the statement above does not confirm the chestplate of the suit was created to keep a piece of shrapnel from moving towards Tony’s heart it does reference a medical reason for the armor.
No repulsors, but flamethrowers instead (which was pretty obvious from the image released by the studio). What surprises me is that the Mark I armor will have flight capability… I really didn’t expect that, and thought they would add it with a later incarnation of the armor.
Thanks to “S.Rogers” for the update.
Around the web:

Guess they may be following the same story line as the animated invincible iron man movie???
The basic origin is the same as it was in the comic book, only differing in the details of location and who the bad guys are. Stark is wounded by the enemy, the bad guys want him to build them a weapon, Yinsen is also a prisoner and helps him build a device that not only keeps Tony alive, but is also a weapon that allows his escape.
Vic
Considering how often Favreau has stressed the idea of realism when it comes to selling this movie to audiences, I doubt we’ll see anything nearly as hokey as the “Elementals” & ‘ghost-Mandarin-possessing-naked-love-interest’ that was in the animated movie. Man that was bad…
LOL, yeah, they DID pick a wierd direction to go in with the animated version. The core origin story is similar, though.
Vic