Idris Elba: 8 Villains He Could Play In Star Trek 3

6. A Gorn

Second only to the Breen and, until the mess that was Star Trek: Nemesis ruined them a little bit, the Remans, the Gorn remain the most criminally underused race in the entire Trek universe. Gorn, for want of a better description, are what would have happened if lizards had evolved in the way that primates did - 6ft, bipedal, highly intelligent and with opposable thumbs, Gorn are the classic fantasy ideal of lizard men taken into the realms of science-fiction. There's obviously something a little cheesy about lizard-folk with spaceships, but that doesn't detract from their standing with Star Trek fans. Their first introduction was in one of the original series best episodes, where Kirk and his Gorn adversary are held captive and forced to settle their differences in a "contest of ingenuity against ingenuity, brute strength against brute strength". Deep Space 9's Captain Sisko even commenting that it would be the one thing he'd ask Kirk about, given the chance. As the Enterprise will likely be beginning its fabled "five year mission" in the new film, races like the Gorn are amongst the most interesting they can come across. The Abrams alternative timeline has already hinted that they've been encountered as well, with Dr McCoy claiming to have delivered a litter of octuplets. What Elba, or indeed any actor, would bring to a role like this is limited only by your imagination, but if one of the concepts is, as Pegg has suggested, to do something a little different with the source material then the Gorn would be a fascinating addition to the franchise. Presumably though anybody who would object to Elba playing a character who has previously been portrayed as white will have similar objections to this role not being given to an actual lizard, but with a serious lack of A-List reptilian actors in Hollywood at present it would, sadly, be unavoidable.