RoboCop & Enterprise Actor Peter Weller Joins STAR TREK 2 Cast!

Peter Weller, star of the RoboCop franchise, has joined the cast of J.J. Abrams' soon to be shooting Star Trek sequel, according to a report in Variety. It is not known what role he has nabbed however Trek fans will remember that he has already appeared as a special guest star on the Enterprise series in 2005. He played John Frederick Paxton, a human Chief Administrator of an Orpheus Mining Colony on the Earth's moon and who also took part in a movement known as Terra Prime, a radical faction that wanted all non-Humans to be banished from Earth and the entire Solar System. It is unknown whether Weller will be reprising this character in the new Trek movie but Abrams will no doubt have been conscious of his former Trek portrayal when hiring him. From what I can tell, 100 years have passed since those events from the Enterprise series (2155) to the timeline of the new Trek series (2250's) and which should still be in continuity as the Nero time jump in the last movie happened after Paxton's story. Though we've already seen Abrams use time travel in his new franchise and also flashbacks (the opening scene) so there's lots of possibilities here. This for me is the most intriguing of the new Star Trek castings as it MAY (and I stress MAY) be the first that gives a few hints at the plot. Though Abrams might have just hired Weller to play somebody new. This is not unheard of in Trek lore. When running down potential Trek 2 villains, the website Fandomania wrote about Paxton;

In his Star Trek: Enterprise appearance, Paxton nearly derails the negotiations that led to the formulation of the Federation, because he and his followers hate anyone who is not human. His combination of an army of brainwashed followers and being on a personal mission to purify Earth would make him quite formidable. Plus, it gives Abrams an easy way to get back to Star Trek€˜s tradition of exploring the human condition which he pretty much ignored in the first movie.

J.J. Abrams is gearing up to direct his Star Trek sequel from a script by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof. The whole of the Enterprise crew return for the sequel with Benicio del Toro all but set as the villain and Alice Eve reportedly in negotiations to play a new character. Weller, Del Toro and Eve's specific roles in the movie are currently unknown.