Sir Ben Kinglsey lends his voice to the villainous Archibald Snatcher in Laika's The Boxtrolls, which is set to be released in September. We were able to speak with the actor about the film recently - stay tuned for more on the genuinely charming stop-motion adventure soon.

Who's REALLY Pulling the Strings?:

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“ Has the Mandarin invented Trevor, or has Trevor invented the Mandarin? Which is which?

Fan Interactions:

“ Enthusiasm's wonderful. It's a great thing.

The Rise of the Comic Book Movie:

“ Give us values. Give us good and evil and morality and ethics and that horrible gray bit in the middle. Give us that.

During the course of our chat, we touched on how Kingsley felt about the continued questions surrounding the role of The Mandarin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.As many know, there was a storm of controversy among comic fans when Kingsley's legitimately menacing Mandarin was revealed to be a struggling actor - Trevor Slattery - hired to portray the dangerous man in the media as a smokescreen for Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian.When last we saw Trevor, he was holding court with a group of incarcerated sycophants; that is before he was busted out of prison by a man who works for...the real Mandarin.Adding, "So, it's up to the powers that be to decide whether or not they'd want to introduce Trevor, whether or not they'd want to reintroduce the Mandarin."Now here is where it gets interesting. Many viewers loved the palpable sense of danger that Kingsley brought during his brief scenes as The Mandarin, which is one of the reasons that fans felt disappointed by Iron Man 3's ultimate twist. The actor proposes an additional turn, which could mean that everyone wins."Has the Mandarin invented Trevor, or has Trevor invented the Mandarin? Which is which?" Kingsley asks. "The Mandarin could be so supremely intelligent that he could have said, 'You know what? I'll invent this actor, and he will be my mask.' You know, which is which? Who's pulling the strings. Now, this is me just free-thinking here, but I would love to revisit that world. But Trev, bless him, may have made an indelible mark on that world. So everyone might say, 'Is it Trev under there?' So they'd have to approach it quite carefully, and so would I, but I would love to go back to that world, yeah."So, could Trevor Slattery be the Keyser Soze of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? So brilliant that he's hiding in plain sight? It's certainly an intriguing possibility."My first visit to Comic-Con was with this project [Boxtrolls]," Kingsley said. "And we were all kept fairly in our bubble in terms of the vehicles, the hotel, even walking through the kitchens -- and I felt fine. It was no big deal. But then on the streets and when I walked on stage, I was quite surprised at the reception. I really was. It was an eye-opener, because I realized that things that I create are hitting a group of people that really love it and they're enthused by it. It's their mythology. It's their story. It's their contemporary way of sharing stories and dressing up and enthusing. Enthusiasm's wonderful. It's a great thing. I was very touched by how benign and innocent it is. That's what really struck me, because people were saying, 'It's crazy! It's crazy!' And I was a little bit nervous thinking, 'You mean crazy-aggressive?' But is was so benign -- so friendly, so enthusiastic. It's sweet. It really is.""It's not to do with exploration." Kingsley reflected. "It's not to do with tribal warfare -- it's more galactic warfare. But it is more to do with gods and goddesses, and that has hit a nerve for some reason. The audience will find a focus. Somehow the comic books evolved and just hit that archetype -- I don't know whether they're archetypes, but it's nudging on mythology. It's nudging on Zeus and Apollo and Medea and all those extraordinary creatures from very, very ancient mythology. I think that perhaps -- some time ago I coined a rather pretentious phrase -- I'm quite good at that -- saying that we have given over our mythology to the advertising men. I think that did happen, that suddenly everything got broken up and trivialized and shallow. Aspirations were all about the makeup and the vehicle and the dress and the shoes. It's still present, but the ad men just started appropriating mythology in the wrong way, using superlatives for things that are quite trivial and everyday and shouldn't be in that place. I think, honestly, the good, healthy audience has said, 'You know what? We've had enough of this. Give us values. Give us good and evil and morality and ethics and that horrible gray bit in the middle. Give us that.'"We will keep you updated as details on The Mandarin and Kingsley's future participation - if any - with Marvel as they emerge.

Roth Cornet is an Entertainment Editor for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @RothCornet and IGN at Roth-IGN