Recasting Every Prime Star Trek Movie Villain

8. Benicio Del Toro - Khan Noonien Singh (Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan)

You won't find many Trek fans arguing against the claim that Khan Noonien Singh is the quintessential Trek villain: ingeniously devious and ferociously cunning, as played to velvet-tongued perfection by the great Ricardo Montalbán in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Khan occupies a unique place on this list because he's the only major Trek movie villain to have been portrayed in both the Prime and rebooted Kelvin timelines.

Though Benedict Cumberbatch gave a laudable performance as the new version of Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness, reception to J.J. Abrams' jerking-around of fans - in an attempt to preserve the surprise of the villain's identity - and the whitewashing of the character were hugely divisive.

It's especially galling as the perfect actor was very nearly cast to play Khan 2.0 in Star Trek Into Darkness. Benicio del Toro was actually sought out by Abrams for the part, and though they did meet to discuss it, the actor ultimately bowed out.

We're not privy to why things didn't work out, but in terms of his physical characteristics - for one, being Latino like Montalbán - and peerlessly steely acting gravitas, he'd absolutely knock this role out of the park.