The Star Trek sequel continues to be in the early stages and according to JJ Abrams, the notion of bringing back Khan is still possible. In a new interview snippet at MTV, the producer and possible director of the sequel talks about the possibility of recasting Trek’s ultimate villain.
Khan 2.0?
In an interview with MTV, JJ Abrams noted one of the advantage of the new universe timeline that was set up in the first film, and notes that finding a new Khan is no different than recasting the main crew:
Now that we are in a parallel existence with what fans of the original series love so much, we could introduce any number of characters, settings, references and situations that the original series introduced. Dealing with Khan would certainly be a challenge, but we had an equal challenge in finding our crew of the Enterprise.
It should be noted that Abrams was not saying Khan is in the movie, just pointing out that it is still possible, he went into more detail, saying
While I don’t want to approach the second film as a remake of episodes we’ve seen in the past. I don’t think any of the writers or producers are interested in just rehashing or throwing characters for the sake of it, and Khan is certainly the most obvious one in the history of the series for me, I do think that…nothing is off limits in terms of what we’re discussing. When Bob Orci and the others who know ‘Trek’ so well, when we are discussing stories, the fun of working with them is they know this universe so deeply they’re the ones who are always considering what it means to deal with the stuff in the past, so it’ll be exciting.
Listen to Abrams comments here:
More from Abrams at MTV
KHAAANNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DON’T DO IT
…it’s a no-brainer…
“I don’t think any of the writers or producers are interested in just rehashing or throwing characters for the sake of it…”
Really? So you guys are going in a completely different direction with this one. Delta Vega, Spock Prime, or Chekov ring any bells?
Don’t do it. Use an original idea and create a story based on someone or something else. Star Trek II is my favorite out of them all, the Shat was awesome and Montalban was spectacular. Don’t try to out do the best movie of the series, create something yourself.
Dammit Jim, I’m a moviemaker – I don’t have original ideas!
How about Mudd’s men instead of Mudd’s women …….. not that there is anything wrong with that
NO! If we’re gonna rehash the series, I’d like to see Harry Mudd or Cyrano Jones create some serious universe threatening problem. Wouldn’t you like to see Harry Mudd unwittingly create a situation that threatens the entire Earth or some other part of the universe?
Worst. Idea. Ever.
No. Khan.
Quit trying to go back to the damn well for a bucket o’ hermetically-sealed antagonist so often. Want to ladle out a pop culture reference to the die-hards? Try bringing back Gary Mitchell, only this time without the microwaved giblets and slept-in contact lenses. Make him a classmate of Kirk’s and his weapons chief, who likes to tweak Chekov’s fuzzy widdle cheeks. Don’t be so overt with the tributes and tip o’ the hats. Star Trek hasn’t had a memorable bad guy since the Borg showed up.
C’mon, guys, think: what sort of menace could there possibly be out there that your industry hasn’t milked yet, but would scare the jammies off of people?
Very cool. Obviously they are focused on the story and not a character gimmick to drive the next movie.
Bring it on! I’m ready to see what they do.
the bad guy should be playted by Andy Samberg as the guy in Space Olympics
Can we stop with the whole “threatens the entire Earth” plot already? Is that all Star Trek has become, a lame wannabe comic book film franchise? “Saving the Earth, Episode 4!”
Maybe Khan should kill spock prime, then use his shapeshifting ability to take over the jellyfish. Then maybe it could turn into a big pile of poo .
I am still holding out that we will not see Khan in the next film. I really don’t see any reason to go down that road, but I accept that my opinion is just that… an opinion. If the guys have come upon some clever way to make Khan work, I’ll go along with it. But since they are still, apparently, in the story-making stage, I’m jumping up and down and waving like a frantic idiot shouting, “We already had Khan, we don’t need him again!!!!!”
Look, I voted to see Gary Mitchell and Christine Chapel in the next film, and, while I could go along with seeing Klingons as the villians, I’d love to see the Gorn, or the Tholians, or one of the more obscure alien species cast as the villian. But I simply have no desire to see Khan.
Khan and lens flares.
All in all, I’d rather more creativity than re-imagination. Hollywood redoing Hollywood has never been worthwhile. Khan is a boring choice. If one must mine past Star Treks for inspiration, I’d rather they return to the old Enterprise!
Sincerely,
C.S. Lewis
Now that the lawsuit is over with Harlan Ellison – Remake ” City on the edge of forever “
please don’t do it. It takes them at least 2 years to make a movie and we don’t have any tv shows to hold us over in between. That means the only chance (currently) for new star trek is the movies. So please don’t waste our time with a completely unoriginal movie.
I’m definitely open to any of their ideas at this point. They did a phenomenal job with Star Trek and I’ll trust them to do a good job with the new one.
Man, what’s with all the Khan hate? He was a memorable villain and an interesting character. If they handled the character right, I wouldn’t mind seeing new stories with him in it. I DO think that if JJ is going to do Khan, he shouldn’t do it in the sequel. He’s such a memorable bad guy that he should be saved for a few movies down the road (& possible hinted at in the sequel?). Especially when there are so many iconic baddies left to explore, the Klingons being chief among them. Heck, for that matter we haven’t even seen the Romulans (of this time line) yet…
The risk in writing Khan back in as a character is that everyone will be comparing the movie to TWOK moreso than usual. If they cast a really good actor though I think a lot of people would be silent on the issue though.
As other fans have suggested and your poll to the right – the addition of a new strong (Hot) female lead character to the Enterprise bridge; to be the new in-house antagonist to Kirk and to be a true rival to Spock, would allow for continued conflict on the bridge and greater exploration of all our human emotions.] > Lieutenant Commander “__?__ ”, a Andorian / Human hybrid > https://market.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1648565&member > graduated second in her class to Spock from Starfleet Academy – current posting, first officer aboard the Andorian Federation Flag Ship – but she has been obsessed with a command post on the Enterprise since her construction began.
So the next time Kirk and Spock leave the bridge for a “landing party” we don’t have to see ever again a 17 year old Chekov in command of the Enterprise!
{Possible Canon – This new character could be the great grand daughter of Commander/ General Thy’lek Shran- http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Thy%27lek_Shran the grand child of his daughter Talla Shran— and her human Star Fleet officer husband?}
Again, just one emample…
There’d be such a flaw with having Khan in the next movie. JJ would have to introduce him, have Kirk royally piss him off, and then vow revenge; all in the span of 2 1/2 hours. To do all that, JJ would need do the first two things within the first 30-45 minutes or so. The next 90-120 minutes would be devoted to the whole revenge deal.
The character of Khan would need a multi-movie arc to portray him as well as Gene Roddenberry and Nicholas Meyer imagined. Those are movies that I don’t think JJ is up for making.
I’m so going to copy this:
KHAN!
-zooms out into the vacuum of space, yet is stil audible-
KKKKKHHHHHAAAAANNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!
No Khan,no episode remake, please!!!!!
Be original for the love of Trek!!!!!
I say Klingon female villain!
Please don’t do it; maybe down the line after this gang has a few movies under their belt, but not now.
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!
No Khan!
Do Klingons! You could do Gary Mitchell, he deserves his own movie and he’d be a good match for new Kirk. You could do anything from the Original Series that was a great episode that already has not had a feature length film devoted to it, thus, no more Khan!
And no more talk of old trek series cast tie-ins! This is a new alternate reality! No more gimmicks! Original ideas only!
Khan is still one of the best villains of all time, he doesn’t need a reboot!! Besides, nobody could match Ricardo Montalban’s performance. He IS Khan Noonien Singh! In my opinion, Klingons are the way to go!
Enough with Khan. Been there, done that, and very well, too.
No Borg. Don’t screw up the 23rd century with a 24th century villain.
Best solution?
THE GORN. Lots of them. What makes them tick? Why have they attacked so many Federation outposts?
Maybe you can tie in the creatures of Operation: Annihilate! with the Gorn. They’re overwhelming Gorn homeworlds, they’re pissed, and they’re taking it out on the Federation, because they think it’s their fault. And we can’t seem to communicate with them and convince them otherwise.
I swear, there is SO MUCH MORE to be mined from the original series than Khan again. Please.
Why explore Classic Khan when there is so much more unexplored Khan territory…like Gengis Khan, Zor Khan, or even the most nefarious of all…The Comic Khan.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We’ve worked this hard to reboot the franchise, so now we’re gonna rehash Khan?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Can’t we tell *one* original story? Please? Especially since we’re gonna have to wait three years for it?
Bring on the Gorn. Call him Gor-Khan.
Yes we Kahn? I don’t think so.
It always perplexed me that Star Trek [The Tele Vision] which had a virtually open ended galaxy of story line possibilities kept recycling episode plots. Of course I understand re-imagining the crew of the Enterprise for its past and our future (are you with me so far?) but bringing back an epi *and* a movie villain, I’m just saying…
FWIW, I don’t think sneero was such a great villain. But he had a monster truck.
You can get way bad ass out there in the universe so there’s no real need for the snarling boy from the Botany Bay. AND, you can’t use Ricardo Montalban anymore, and he was what made Kahn, not the writing. So if you have to recast it, go the freakin distance and create a worthy, nuanced, invincible foe. And hire a real actor to play her.
no khan please…it would be star trek ripping off star trek
Roberto and Orci are not the brilliant writers that this site keeps shoving down our throats that they are. Get some new guys who can write a story that is fun and exciting, not spock walking away from the bridge in horror after Kirk rips away his command and says his dead mother never loved him… and then become best friends out of that.
Stop exposing trek for your freakin paycheck…stick with transformers… and leave Khan alone.
Thanks. :)
11. sci-fi bri – November 2, 2009
the bad guy should be playted by Andy Samberg as the guy in Space Olympics
———————————————————————————————
Or, better yet.. LASER CATS!!! LOL
please no.
I agree, no more “threat to Earth” scenarios..
1. No “alien probe” or V’ger-type threat to the Earth
2. No Khan (at least, not yet)
3. No Khan-like/Nero-like/Schinzon-like, single villain vs. the Enterprise
4. No “super alien” Borg-type opponent
Something very, very original.. maybe a threat more “X-Files”-like in nature, more of a paranormal/mystery-type threat or disaster? (Some people may hate that idea. I’m just brainstorming, here)
No Khan, no Orci and no Kurtzman.
do harry mudd!
How about this.. the Enterprise collides with the Allspark in deep space, turning the Enterprise into a Transformer.
Harry Mudd is gay.
#31 “THE GORN. Lots of them. What makes them tick? Why have they attacked so many Federation outposts?”
I agree! The GORN. “Remember Cestus III !”
Hell JJ, you can reflect lens flares off the multi-facetted eyes of the Gorn and I wont even fraking bitch about it. Just DO NOT DO KHAN! There’s just some things that should be considered sacred and should be left alone.
#16 – talk about stale (TOS ENT)
I would love to see a new Khan with someone like Javier Bardem, as has been suggested elsewhere. Khan means business and he’s a villain that the audience would take seriously. Throw in some Klingons and we have a helluva film!
yes kurtzman/orci, no khan
People keep forgetting that if they do Khan, it wont be a remake of the “Wrath of Khan” it will be the episode when they introduce Khan
Khan can’t have a Wrath without being introduced now can he?
i would dig some khan flares in a brewery. ilea, or any hot bald indian babe would be sweet, too.
and bring back janice rand! only this time, base her on lee whitney and make her a boozy sex addict. oh yeah.
but in this future, couldn’t khan be like a sweet, eco-friendly guy who runs a little space cafe? with like, batter-fried earslugs on the menu?