UPDATED: JJ Abrams Denies Star Trek Sequel Villain Rumor

Director JJ Abrams has already confirmed he is considering Oscar-winning actor Benicio Del Toro to play the villain for his Star Trek sequel. There has been a lot of speculation regarding what role he will be playing and now there is an unconfirmed report on who he would be playing. See below for the possible spoiler. [UPDATE: JJ Abrams has denied the rumor]

 

UPDATE: Abrams denies Del Toro as Khan rumor

UPDATED: Late Friday afternoon Latino Review reported that a source has told them that Benicio del Toro will be playing Khan Noonien Singh in the 2013 Star Trek sequel. However, on Friday evening HitFix got a comment from JJ Abrams saying the Latino Review report was "not true."


Ricardo Montalbán as Khan Khan Noonien Singh in "Space Seed" and actor Benicio del Toro now rumored to be up for part of Khan in the Star Trek sequel

First played by Ricardo Montalban in the original Star Trek episode "Space Seed" in 1967 and the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the character of Khan is probably Star Trek’s best known bad guy. Khan has been at the top of the list of possible villains ever since producer Damon Lindelof revealed (in the Star Trek 2009 DVD commentary) that the team had considered adding a post-credits scene showing Khan’s sleeper ship, the SS Botany Bay.

Stay tuned for more Star Trek movie updates soon.

 

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He tasks me….

Yuck.

Oh brother! Here we go…

(Sings to the tune of Elton John’s “Can You Feel The Love Tonight?”)

“Khan you feel the love tonight?….It is where we are!”

I’d rather have him as a Gorn.

I hope not….don’t destroy my favorite ST movie by doing a remake….I hope del torro is a Klingon

Sincerely hoping that this rumor isn’t true. We have an amazing Khan movie, and JJ can do whatever he wants with the new movie, so why use Khan again?

I thought I was completely against the Khan re-visitation; So I’m “tasked” to explain the dizzying jolt of excitement I just experienced!

Do these guys eat re-hash browns for breakfast? How about EARNING a paycheck, “powers”-that-be?

7 – Because these guys are not nearly as creative as they have hoodwinked a number of fans that they are.

First I should just say I do enjoy the Khan character and love both of his previous appearances in the Trek Universe very much. But IF Khan is the villain than i’ll be incredibly disappointed. The whole goal of Abrams & Co. reboot of Trek was to give them the freedom to do something different. If they just go back to Khan, than what was the point of the reboot in the first place?

Is Khan the safe choice? Is there a gaurantee of success there? From the very start of Abrams-Trek the guys involved kept talking about Khan. And talking about Khan as if Trek began and ended with him. If they go with Khan in their sequel, i’ll have very little to no interest in this movie, honestly. Pass.

It would be more interesting if they came up with a new original character rather than recycle them. Then again, so many characters were portrayed over and over again when franchises were rebooted. So I guess I’m going to keep my mouth shut and wait for confirmation, as well as seeing how this villain will be portrayed. Del Toro is a great actor and I can’t wait to see what he can pull off for this movie.

11 – “Is Khan the safe choice?”

Of course it is! That’s why they’re making it.

Risk … risk ain’t their business! That’s why they’re on board with this.

Let’s hope it’s a red herring and a publicity stunt to maintain fan interest during the interminable wait for the next movie.

@1 well put

@10 well put

@13 and well put. And funny.

Need I say more? That Alice Eve is the Borg queen and not a female love interest and certainly not new to the canon? And you all denied my information…. last laugh?

14 – Thank you. Won’t Kirk’s “Khan” yell be just awesome in 3-D?

Oh … let’s spell that “Con!”

Bring on Khan! I like this if true!

Sigh. What happened to originality? This if true will be very disappointing.

15 – She’ll be Khan’s wife, who dies, and sets him on vengeance against Kirk. It’s Trek by numbers.

did they reboot the franchise just to do the same thing all over??

i hoped Del Toro woild play a klingon or something.

i mean, that was what they spent four years thinking about? a new khan story?

someone save us

20 – “did they reboot the franchise just to do the same thing all over??”

Just another example of Nietzsche’s theory of eternal recurrence.

19 —

Incorrect. I already stated this much further back when everyone said that Del Toro couldn’t possibly be Khan. He is. This sequel is all about keeping the information from leaking. Khan teams up with the Borg queen to take down the Enterprise, which gravely injures his mentor in the opening sequence of the film.

Please no.

23 – Got any proof that you are “Inside the Production”?

And if you are, and are giving spoilers, JJ is going to saute your nads.

#23.

“This sequel is all about keeping the information from leaking.”

Yeah, that’s worked out real well, I’d say! (Sarcasm)

Kinda like closing the barn doors after the horses ran loose!

In your case, loose lips sink ships!

Well, if this is true, remember that it will likely not be a TWOK remake but a Space Seed remake. However I am with a lot of the comments above. I’d rather not see Khan (be original) and that Del Toro would make a fine sophisticated Klingon.

25 – Well that clarifies that, re: 23.

Thank you, sir!

Of course he’s playing Khan. They went with a new, no-name villain last time… this time they HAVE to go back the Established Villain Well.

That, and there’s NO originality left in Hollywood. Way to go, Abrams & Co.!

I seriously hope that this rumor is as true as the one about the riddler being the baddie in the next Batman film. Seriously? Kahn again? This is what took your over four years to write, a Kahn re-telling? Please, please one of the writers come on TrekMovie and debunk this nasty rumor.

Besides, Del Toro looks much more like a Klingon then he does Kahn of all people.

I hope this is crap, because I liked the reboot and the new possibilities it presented us with. Making a second Star Trek 2 movie be about Khan is in no way interesting to me.

And to echo Jason above…it took four years to come up with Khan? Seriously? Geez, I’m in the wrong line of work.

Guys, if you’re not going to do anything new with the new universe you created, then move on and either let someone else do it or let it die. We had two series worth of craptacular retreads that ended up killing that iteration of the franchise.

At least we had seven years of TNG and some DS9 before we hit serious retread territory and you seem to be doing it after two measly hours worth of nuTrek.

Again, I’m hoping this is a bs story.

No Khan do!

http://collider.com/star-trek-2-villain-khan-benicio-del-toro/130066/

This is another article which is talking about some source saying Del Toro will be Khan, but they also give good reasons why it is a bad idea.

Honestly – JJ, Bob, Alex – I can’t believe it. Tell me it ain’t so!

Frankly, I think it is just a Latino site who wants to see an Oscar winning Latino play a role made famous by another good Latino actor some 30 years ago. The problem is that Khan is not Latino. Even his name should tell people that.

Frankly, the best thing that could happen to the Botany Bay (while all the crew are *asleep*) is that the ship gets gobbled up by that planet killer thingy. The End. Del Toro plays the Klingon who sees this weapon and believes it to be a new Federation weapon proto-type. He and his warbird barely escape the mall of this huge weapon but he does and goes back to report what he has witnessed, along with his half-baked, unsubstantiated conclusion. The stuff of all *good* sci-fi war stories – any excuse for a space battle and intrigue and death and shit.

Meanwhile the planet killer goes on its merry way, only to be gobbled up by one of those rogue supernovas and the supernova disappears, never to be seen again.

How is that for an *original* story?

Typically Hollywood.. Look for more of the same from “Man of Steel”, which is doing the same thing with General Zod – replacing a perfect, definitive performance by a charismatic stage actor with a mumbling moping method actor.

Expect this movie to be all about selling the toys. Look for Klingons, Borg, and Khan all mashed together in another brainless shoot-em-up.

Latino Review is a dubious source, at best. Take it with a grain of salt.

That being said-should this turn out to be true-it’s very disappointing. Completely unoriginal.

Leakage? From an Abrams film? Only if he planned it.

Heck yeah! I LOVE IT! I can’t wait to see Del Toro’s take on the character.

If its Khan then make the movie about Space Seed and Wrath of Khan mixed the two stories together some way. All happening at the same stardate when Kirk and Khan first met, it still could be called Wrath of Khan.

Funny how people are upset that a Latino is playing a character with a Sikh name , but never mention that “Jean Luc Picard” doesn’t exactly scream “British”.

James Cawley could have come up with something better. Shame on J.J. and Co. if this is true.

I find it ironic that many of the same people who are against Khan, who was only seen in one episode and one movie, are more interested in seeing the Klingons, who’ve been DONE TO DEATH in every friggin’ incarnation of Trek on tv, and most of the damn movies already!

Remember, these guys have to maintain interest from the mainstream. They obviously feel (if the rumors are true) Khan would work best to improve audience numbers and to put a new, more modern spin on the character.

I mean, how many Jokers have we seen? Mark Hamill, Caesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, and Heath Ledger, all of whom played the character with some similarities, as well as differences.

And for those of you saying a new Khan would be in poor taste after Ricardo Montalban’s death, the producers had already recast the original characters. Two of which (McCoy and Scotty) were originally portrayed by two actors (DeForrest Kelley and James Doohan) who died a number of years prior to the reboot. So that precedent has already been set.

Besides, it is quite possible that while we will have a familiar villain, we could have a totally different storyline from that of “Space Seed” and “The Wrath Of Khan”.

I can’t wait to see where they go with Khan, if it’s true they are going with him’

Best news I’ve heard in a while. Since the sequel was announced I said bring on Khan! I can’t wait to see what Orci, Kurtzman, JJ and crew do with such an iconic character. My mind races with all the possibilities above and beyond the typical Space Seed remake.

And of course they were going the Khan route, after the wild (financial) success of The Dark Knight starring most iconic batman villain how could they not.

Ha! Well, Bob did say they did the story they always wanted to do, and Khan did always seem to be the foremost story in their minds, based on what they did reveal of their thinking.

Well duh…

What do you think those first conversations about rebooting Star Trek all about?

” We can bring Khan back, or Harry Mudd, we can show Kirk fall in love & conceive a son with a hot model/actress”

The previous movie was an obvious vehicle to get to this point. I have accepted it & moved on. I hope all the “no Khan”ers out there do too.

This was inevitable.

So..Prometheus looks alright….

I thought Abrams, Orci, and company had confirmed that Khan was not going to be the villain?

If this is true, I won’t bother with the next movie. I’m already a little angry that Trek has been kept off TV for so long.

If they were going with this, the long wait is inexcusable.

Please give Trek to someone who doesn’t have 6 or 7 other plates spinning at the same time.

STAY… OR GO!
But do it because you want to!

Latino Review is often wrong.

I’m of two minds. I had really hoped for an all new Star Trek adventure. All new as in not revisiting the Prime Star Trek timeline even if in a fractured way. I’ve been complaining that, to my way of thinking, a reboot should be used to shake the shackles of 40+ years of canon and start over fresh and new “going where no man has gone before”. It seems to me that we haven’t boldly gone in a new direction in a loooong, loooong time. So, in that sense I’m very disappointed if these new rumors are true.

However, Benicio Del Toro is an awesome actor and if anyone can bring intelligence and menace to a new interpretation of Khan, he can do it!! (Please don’t let KHAN be a one-dimensional villain who snarls and twirls his mustache, so to speak. Pleeeeease! Give the guy some layers and motivations! )

If anyone can pull it off though the new TREK team can. I hope!

So, in summary, I’m disappointed but very hopeful if these rumors are true. I can’t kid you guys though, I’ll be there on opening night as excited as a kid on Christmas morning! I just hope I get the present I want!!