Though the true nature of the organization wasn’t revealed until 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Xu Wenu’s surreptitious terrorist organization, The Ten Rings, has been causing chaos in the MCU since its inception. If not for the actions of one cell of The Ten Rings that attacked a U.S. military convoy in Afghanistan, Tony Stark would never have become Iron Man in the MCU’s Sacred Timeline.
Of course, it was eventually revealed that the leader of that cell, Raza Hamidmi al-Wazar, had been working with Obadiah Stane, first to buy Stark Industries weapons and then to kidnap Tony. After recovering pieces of Stark’s original Iron Man armor from the desert, al-Wazar believed he had struck a deal with Stane that would eventually provide the Ten Rings with an army of armored soldiers. Instead, Stane took the armor, which eventually became the Iron Monger suit, and killed al-Wazar and his men.
While that certainly seemed to be the end for the MCU’s first baddie, it seems there’s more for the Phase 1 villain to do after all. According to multiple trade reports, Faran Tahir, who portrayed al-Wazar in 2008’s Iron Man, will return to the role in Marvel Television’s untitled D+ Vision series.
Tahir’s return certainly Adds another layer of intrigue to the already mysterious Vision series. The Paul Bettany-led series, which was originally developed by WandaVision and Agatha All Along creator Jac Schaeffer before being reworked by Terry Matalas, is expected to follow the White Vision as he attempts to relearn his own tragic history.
James Spader signed on to reprise his role as Vision’s “father”, the rogue AI Ultron, and Todd Stashwick joined the project in September as a mysterious assassin. As murky as those two castings made the picture of what the plot of the Vision series could entail, bringing back a long-dead baddie muddies the waters even further. Given Vision’s history is thoroughly entangled with Tony Stark’s, it’s entirely possible Tahir’s al-Wazar could be seen in flashbacks; however, since the character’s death was only assumed, it’s possible he could have survived Stane’s firing squad and find himself somehow mixed up with Ultron. Whatever the case, al-Wazar will now be operating in a world where Xu Wenwu has died and his daughter, Xu Xialing, is now the head of her father’s empire. Perhaps the next chapter in her story will be tied somehow to the events of the Vision series.
Marvel Television’s untitled Vision series begins filming soon and is expected to stream on Disney Plus in 2026.
Source: Deadline
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