To take on Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. in the global smartphone market, China’s TCL Corp. is enlisting a strong ally: Iron Man.

In a product-placement deal for Paramount Pictures Corp.’s third Iron Man movie, Robert Downey Jr.’s character Tony Stark will battle his latest nemesis, the Mandarin, using TCL’s products. Some real-world features, such as handheld devices interacting with televisions, will be replicated on-screen.