Sir Ben Kingsley has revealed he agreed to reprise his role as the Mandarin because he was concerned about him.

The British star returned to play Trevor Slattery, an actor who was unmasked as the villainous Mandarin in Iron Man 3, in Marvel Studios' One-Shot short, All Hail The King.

"I missed Trevor - I was worried about him!" Ben told HitFix.

The mini-movie - which was written and directed by Iron Man 3 writer Drew Pearce and is featured on the Thor: The Dark World DVD and Blu-ray - sees Trevor, now a "star" in prison, giving an exclusive interview to a documentarian (played by Scoot McNairy).

"The script was so beautiful. I never changed a line or distorted it. I might have added some nuance or rhythm to it that was perhaps unexpected even to Drew but I didn't stray off it at all," Ben said to Collider.

"I love telling the story. I love being useful to the telling of the story - and his story was so charming in a way. Trevor's a very vulnerable man."

The 70-year-old added: "And he's a great survivor. Even in prison, he creates his own environment. It's always good to find something in a character you admire and I admire Trevor's capacity to survive and adapt. He's a chameleon."

Ben joked that Trevor is inspired by some of his fellow thespians.

"He's an amalgam of actors that I've worked with - actors who I drank with in the pub afterwards who would go on and on and on about their playing King Lear in Croydon. It's a salute to the struggling actor who suddenly gets an enormous break and is propelled into infamy," he said.

PA Media