Star Trek: Into Darkness has taken the pop-culture World by storm with 16 versions of a teaser trailer called “epic” by some viewers, stunning by others. The video features a somewhat deep voice with a slight English accent owned by the actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the movie’s villain – and everyone’s trying to guess his name.
Many reports have him playing Khan. But there’s no basis for that as truth other than expectations planted by Sci-Fi bloggers almost immediately after the success of Star Trek. What happens in cases like this, are that media types express what they want to see, and over time that becomes what’s going to be in the movie. Indeed, the idea that Khan would be the villain was batted down as recently as five months ago.
The bottom line is many blogger are fans, and they want the villain to be Khan. But he’s not – the villain is Gary Mitchell, or some version of him. My guess is, given the trailer, it’s cannon turned sideways and adjusted. Whatever the case, the man in the trailer looks nothing like a Khan, who has long hair, and everything like Gary Mitchell.
It also may be a connection to Nero, as well. I, for one, think Nero was a great villain who deserves a second go at the screen, and with Eric Bana playing him. (In fact, Bana received critical acclaim and was in the Oscar conversation for his work.)
Whatever the case, the villain is to be revealed on December 17th, but hand it to Paramount for getting the buzz machine right.
Stay tuned.