A brilliant strategist, “Iron Man” villain Obadiah Stane is known to take the long view of things, a trait he picked up from his deep love of chess. A move here, a setup there — and ultimately your plan pays off.

We can’t help but think he’d somehow appreciate our little game over the past year with the cast and crew of “Iron Man,” who repeatedly and categorically still declare that Mandarin will be Tony Stark’s foe in the first movie, despite what amounts to overwhelming circumstantial evidence to the contrary.

MTV Movies editor Josh Horowitz had the opportunity to speak with “Iron Man” co-star Terrence Howard recently and asked him point blank if Obadiah (played in the movie by Jeff Bridges) would be the villain. Here’s what Howard had to say:

“Jeff is a beautiful father figure in this movie,” he explained, smiling. “But you know the comic book. You know what the comic book is about. You know what has to take place.”

Howard is referring to a story arc in which Stark International is bought out by Stane, causing Stark to relapse into alcoholism and relinquish his armor to Howard’s character, James Rhodes. Both of the latter two things we know happen in the second movie.

“The alcoholism doesn’t come into play until [movie two],” director Jon Favreau told MTV last year. “The first one’s going to explore him developing the suit and what happens politically within the Stark Corporation.”

Speaking of politics, it’s worth noting, of course, that in the comics Stane is helped in his bid to gain control of Stark Enterprises by SHIELD, a government counterterrorism agency whose most prominent member is Nick Fury — a character who, oh by the way, just so happens to be in “Iron Man” as well. (Played by Sam Jackson, it’ll be a cameo appearance.)

Does all this add up to checkmate? Sound off below.