Star Trek 2: Benedict Cumberbatch is Khan?
Klingons and Leonard Nimoy also confirmed for J.J. Abrams' currently filming sequel.
It's being widely reported that Benedict Cumberbatch is indeed playing the uber villain Khan in J.J. Abrams' highly anticipated and currently Star Trek sequel. Trek Movie claim they have it confirmed from their sources that Cumberbatch's mysterious role in untitled sequel is one we are all familiar with.
They claim that Abrams went through a number of Latino actors for the role including Benicio del Toro (who was offered it first and turned it down) and Edgar Ramirez, before the part eventually landed in Benedict Cumberbatch's lap, the British thesp whose powerful audition won him the gig.
Khan Noonian Singh, originally played by the late Ricardo Montalban, is a genetically engineered superhuman from the ''20th century.'' He was first seen in the Original Series episode 'Space Seed' and went on to be the main villain in The Wrath Of Khan, widely regarded to be the best Trek movie with the best Trek villain.
Fans hoping for a new, original protagonist for Kirk and his crew are going to be disappointed and it will interesting to see how they get around the fact that Khan is supposed to be a Sikh. Where Ricardo Montalban managed to look like he came from India with his Latino look, Cumberbatch's genetics obviously make that more of a problem.
But more of a problem is coming up with a story that lives up to the power of Khan's two previous appearances in Trek, though Trek Movie thankfully says they aren't simply re-hasing 'Space Speed'... which is something of a relief.
Meanwhile it has also been confirmed that Leonard Nimoy is back as Spock in the film, and has apparently already filmed his cameo. Nimoy did retire last year from acting but clearly cant keep away. In any case, more Nimoy is only a good thing!
And finally, it looks like Klingons will play some part in the film but to what extent is unknown. Klingons were long expected for the new movie after Abrams initially included them in his cut of his original film (they captured Neo and held him in prison before he escaped) before deleting them to a DVD extra.
Here's how the Klingons looked as Abrams envisioned them, with an interesting tease of masks covering their face;
Star Trek 2 opens in 2013.