Meet Little Spock

In early January Leonard Nimoy revealed that the new Star Trek movie will not only have two Spocks (himself and Zachary Quinto), but three Spocks. TrekMovie.com has identified this third Spock as twelve-year-old actor Jacob Kogan, who will be appearing as the adolescent version of our favorite half-human half-Vulcan. As a child actor, Kogan has few credits to his name, but he did feature in the title role of the 2007 horror film Joshua, starring Sam Rockwell.

[MINOR SPOILERS]
Kogan’s younger Spock will only appear briefly in the film and apparently has at least one scene with Winona Ryder who plays his mother Amanda Grayson (it isn’t known yet if Ben Cross’ Sarek also appears with Kogan). Last month TrekMovie.com reported on actors being cast to play adolescent versions of James T. Kirk and his brother Sam. However, it appears that they do not have any scenes with the young Spock. All of these young actors are befitting the epic and time-spanning nature of the new Star Trek movie which is truly an ‘origin story’ for the franchise and in particular Kirk and Spock. Kogan has already finished his work on the film and it required him to get a ‘Spock haircut.’ [END SPOILERS]

About Jacob
Jacob Kogan was born and raised in New York and is the son of Russian actor Pavel Kogan. Jacob started his career when he was asked to audition for a film from director Lasse Hallström (Chocolat). Although that film’s financing fell through he has been perusing acting ever since. Jacob appeared in multiple episodes of the MTV2 sketch comedy show Wonder Showzen from 2005-2006, but it was his creepy performance in the 2007 horror film Joshua that was his biggest break. Jacob’s mother has set four strict rules on his acting career: (1) no sitcoms, (2) no commercials, (3) no dumb films, and (4) no relocating to Los Angeles. Jacob will be seen next in the comedy Wherever You Are which is currently in post production. More on Jacob at IMDB.


Kogan in “Joshua”

Not the first Spock kid
Spock has been portrayed as a child before. The first time would be in the The Animated Series episode “Yesteryear” written by D.C. Fontana. That episode showed Commander Spock using the Guardian of Forever to travel back in time to help his younger self (voiced by Billy Simpson) through an ordeal in the deserts of Vulcan. The second time we see a young Spock we actually see him grow up from a child all the way to an adult on the Genesis planet in Star Trek III The Search For Spock. In that case four different actors portrayed Spock at various ages from child to young adult before he grew into Nimoy’s Spock.

It will be interesting seeing Spock as a child. The episode “Yesteryear,” which is considered canon, shows that young Spock’s time as a child was troubled. His main problem was dealing with his conflicting Human and Vulcan sides along with the taunts of “Earther” coming from his Vulcan school mates.


(L) Spock at 13 in “The Search For Spock” (played by Vadia Potenza) & (R) Spock as a child in “Yesteryear”

Kogan Video
Kogan dicusses Joshua w/ clips

Still More to come
Kogan is the sixth casting scoop from TrekMovie.com in February (see previous reports: here, here, and here). And we aren’t finished yet. Expect at least one more by the time the month is over and more to come in March. It is not that we are ‘holding back’ but just always want to be sure we have our facts right. For the full list of the known cast, CLICK HERE.


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Holy crap, they traveled back in time and abducted a young Zachary Quinto!!! Seriously, the similarities between the two of them… wow. Even if Quinto wasn’t cast, the kid is still a dead ringer for a young Spock (or any other Vulcan child for that matter).

sorry about previous post, dunno what happened there… very odd…

So how many actors have portrayed Spock at this point? Is it 5? He is almost as popular as James Bond! But not quite Sherlock Holmes territory yet…

In that top pic he’s totally got the eyebrows. Cool.

He definitely has the look

Wow! Can anyone say young Zachary Quinto? This little guy totally looks the part!

Woo Hoo! Kid’s Mother doesn’t think Star Trek is a “dumb film”!

Agreed – not a bad likeness at all. Much better than the “young Spocks” from ST3.

I thought even Gene Roddenberry said that “The Animated Series” was NOT canon???

Looks like he’ll do fine. Looks like a young half-Vulcan should…

The [MINOR SPOILERS] are great! More food for the starving! :)
Thanks for another fine job, Anthony!

I hearfor the next Trek,,they are going back to when Spockand Kirk are still sperm !

#10

I must admit, I’d be very curious about *that* casting…;-)

#11 Hope it wouldn’t be Bruce Willis, if you get my meaning. I couldn’t bear the thought of either one calling out ‘Yippee-Kai-ay!’ as they barrel out of the womb, finger-guns blazing (in Kirk’s case).

I never saw Joshua, but he does look creepy enough to portray a Vulcan. Thank god they aren’t using that kid from X3. I’m tired of that one. The fresh faces approach JJ and his team are taking is impressing me big time. No ego baggage. :)

He’s so cute! He’ll be an adorable little Spock.

Cuteness aside…he looks great for the part. Definitely like a young Spock!

The resemblance to Quinto is uncanny. Joshua looks like a Omen type movie where the kid is possessed.

I agree with everyone. He has the same long face… even at 12! Good casting choice.

#8… true.. but certain elements have become canon since, and it looks as if more are about to. I love it. There were many good things in it that added to the Trek history.

MINOR SPOILERS keeps us hungry Trekkies fed everyday till May of 2009.
Keep offering the tasty tidbits of info and we’ll keep visiting !
Dead ringer for Nimoy and Quinto!

#8: Roddenberry had the habit of going back after the fact and trying to “de-canonize” things he wasn’t happy with. Remember that he also claimed ST5 and ST6 weren’t canon, either. Ultimately, his opinions simply aren’t the final authority on the subject.

Yeah looks like young Spock alright. they really go all out on ther flashback thing.

This is a nice piece of casting. So where are we now?…three ‘Spocks’, one young, one older, and one elderly…and two ‘Kirks’, one young, one older, and…wait a minute!

I loved Animated TOS as a kid. If only they’d remaster THAT using the voices and more contemporary animation.

My God! This flashback business as already stated in prior posts is really DEEP! I hope that this can be convincing other wisw you are going to have a Flashy MESS!! and quite boring. A movie with Kirk and Spock as kids. I dont know??

A TOO young ‘Darth’ didn’t prove to be a good thing either I seem to remember…

So, does the Young Spock get to fight the Young Darth in a lightsaber battle? And does Jar Jar get beheaded ?

What about Gary Mitchell???

epic spock story in the works, i have a good feeling about this. why arent more photos and spoilers leaking from the set? are they shooting the picture in fort knox?

It’s true that Gene Roddenberry can’t pick and choose what becomes canon and what doesn’t. But who decided that the animated series was canon? It’s a cartoon, which might as well be illustrations in a book. You can’t consider that to be canon in my opinion.

I think there’s a good amount of Trek fandom represented here, let’s make a new poll to decide the issue.

25. j w wright wrote–
… why arent more photos and spoilers leaking from the set? are they shooting the picture in fort knox?

I’m kinda glad we aren’t seeing too much right now. The movie doesn’t premeire ’til May, ’08!

Charming little Vulcan :)
I like how this movie features Spock without becoming absorbed by one character only. It leaves room for a good story with a whole lot of good characters. The way TOS should have been.

Animated–canon. Almost all the original Trek stars voiced. Roddenberry was involved. Stories by quality writers from the original show. The look of the show was consistent with the TV show (even if the Filmation style doesn’t hold up today). Of course, given the above criteria the new movie wouldn’t be canon ; ). We could just rely on Shatner’s advice, “For God sakes, it’s just a TV show!”

What’s next, fetus Spock?

I remember making a fetus joke to a workmate in Japan and getting the biggest laugh I had ever gotten in my life. If I were gay I would have married the guy right there on the spot. You can’t pay for that kind of reaction.

Not that it meant much, but when the people who actually knew what they were doing were running startrek.com, I seem to remember them running a poll where the fans actually voted and the fans voted it as cannon. Not there can’t be another poll of course.

And i think one really big difference is that the ENTIRE movie isn’t going to revolve around young Spock like SW Ep I did with anakin (shudder). Flashbacks are a fine storytelling tool, but we know we are going to see old Spock and TOS age Spock. SO I think they can lay the concerns of Anakin and Jar Jar drop.

SEMPER FI

#26 correct me if im wrong but did not Roddenberry sign off on the animated series. If thats the case then why wouldn’t these episodes be accepted into the cannon?

Ok, found an article where the fans voted in favor of canonization by a margin of more than 2-1. So I guess I’m outvoted. *grumbles*

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/editorials/article/17178.html

But I’m still gonna side with Roddenberry on this one, I think mostly because it’s too easy to pick and choose what you want to be canonized. If something from one of the other series or movies conflicts with TAS, it’d be very easy to just write off TAS in explaining it, say “Oh, that was just the animated series”.

I don’t think you can have levels of canoninity, it’s either canon or it’s not. No in between. And I simply don’t think there’s any way that TAS is on the same level as TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT. Those were quality high budget TV shows, with real people. There’s no way I can put TAS on that same level.

The mere fact that there’s a DEBATE about it ruins it’s crediblity. Nobody would question any of the other series. (unless you’re talking about Voyager’s Threshold maybe) The vote has to be at least very close to unanimous I think.

Don’t forget that DC Fontana also penned the animated episode featuring young Spock.

The whole issue of TAS being or not being “canon” is ridiculous.

Almost the entire TOS crew participated, the episodes were written by TOS writers, the whole thing was overseen by Gene Roddenberry himself, insisting that the look of EVERYTHING be consistent with the original show.

Like it or not TAS is original Star Trek. It is there on DVD for anyone to verify with their own eyes.

Cheesy some may complain, maybe, but so was TOS.

I think Jacob looks more like Leonard than Zachary does. Good choise.

#34 and #35 the whole what is Cannon what is not debate is starting get a little tedious at this point, and I don’t think any of us are going to settle this now or in the future. When I go see the movie im going to put the whole debate out my mind and just enjoy the film. In the case of the flashback Im am wondering if they will be doing it for all of the main cast members ?

arrrrr….

My Three Spocks…

drove Uncle Charlie crazy with their incessant logic…

arrrr….

hasn’t anyone caught that this kid’s father’s name is Pavel??

so we wont be seeing him in harold and kumar vs predator then!

he looks well vulcan tho!

CUTE!

By Grapthar’s hammer….

it’s CANON not CANNON.

And yes, the Animated Series is canon. Produced and paid for by Paramount, it’s 100% canony goodness. Even the giant clone Spock and BEM.

Yep, that Trek Animated Series… it’s canonlicious.
If it were a heart attack it would be a “canonery”.
If it were a nation to the north of the USA, it’d be “Canonda”.
If it were a snake, it’d be an “anacanonda”.
If TAS was recognized as having performed three documented miracles, the Catholic Church would “canonize” it. Oh wait. That’s already a word…

back to topic:

Young Spock… will the Romulans try to kill him as a child, also, so that he doesn’t travel back in time as an adult to save young Jim Kirk??? Jeeze, I’m going to have to watch this movie from a DeLorean to keep track of all the time permutations! I am SO looking forward to this!

voy and ent should be fired out of a canon! hehe

It was my understanding that only something depicted in a live action Trek series or Paramount film is considered canon. It could be that because certain elements of TAS( “Yesteryear”) have been confirmed in ENT (“The Forge”), for instance, that we now accept the entire episode as canon. If so, I have no issue with that. It is my absolute favorite of the animated series episodes. D.C. Fontana is great.

With that said, there are episodes of TAS which I would hope are never canonized…

he looks a bit scary is his name damion !!

majel for trek xi people !! start voting

#22

Origin stories for heroes can work – Superman, Batman, etc. Origin stories for villains – Episode I, Hannibal Rising – eh, not so much.

I’m betting we will see his pet Sehlat and the city of ShiKhar, at least in passing. Wouldn’t that be cool?

@35 Don’t forget, D.C Fontana wrote “To Serve All my Days” too :P

Since trek canoninity is obviously a subjective matter. I choose to throw TAS out. IMHO, being a cartoon automatically disqualifies it.

But you have your right to your opinion.

The big question is.. what does J.J Abrams think? I’d be very interested to know THAT.

Aww…such a cute looking kid! I think he’ll be great as little Spock. I cannot way to see this movie. :)