Del Toro Rumor Mill – Updated
1 min readThe Latino Review website claims to know which villain role Benicio Del Toro will play in Star Trek 2.
Although he hasn’t been officially announced yet as part of Star Trek 2, it is expected that Del Toro will sign up for the Abrams’ sequel soon.
Here is what Latino Review had to say: “So, I’m tracking a Latin bad guy role in an upcoming studio movie and although there is no progress today on that specific part, instead I got dibs on a big time bad guy role played by a Latin dude.
“Although heavily debated online as to whom Benicio del Toro might be playing in Star Trek 2…I’m here to tell you guys that according to my sources…Benicio Del Toro is playing none other than…KHAN NOONIEN SINGH, or better known as Khan!!!”
Until anything official is announced, treat this strictly as rumor.
UPDATE: According to Hitfix, J.J. Abrams was asked to comment on the rumor and he said, “Not true.” Hitfix also claims that Latino Reviw has a “very, very high accuracy rate with the scoops [its reporter] breaks.”
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Orci and/or Kurtzman said there is no KHAN in this movie
I don’t believe that’s true. It was their idea to have the last movie include a cameo of the Botany Bay, so this seems to have been what they wanted all along. Oh, btw, where are all the jerks who jumped down my throat 3 weeks ago for making a comment about a hispanic guy playing the Indian Khan again? Oh, right… you’ve run back to your little hater holes for the next thing you can jump on and try to show you’re a badass… noted.
Thw last article was written like this: Khan will *not* be in Star Trek 2. Come on. It’s Khan. He’s the most popular villain in the Trek universe next to Q. Also since this is a parrallel universe, who’s to say that Khan will be a bad guy? Imagine a Khan Noonian Sing that is all powerful, yet loyal to this Kirk for saving all his crew this time. Remember a few did perish in Space Seed when they were revived. How bout this; The Klingons find Khan first. They want to use him in whatever plan they have against the Federation. Kirk rescues him. In this timeline, Khan sacrifices himself to save the Enterprise and the rest of his people. I wonder if Alice Eve plays Marla Mcgyvers, the one Khan falls for. They said she would play an all new character, but you know how the system works. Basically telling us true information about the movie ‘from a certain point of view’ if you will.
It wont be the Wrath of Khan, though. The Redemption of Khan?
I thought Mantobaln was Hispanic?
I just have a hard time believing that these people could be so unimaginative as to use an old villain instead of doing something completely original. It wouldn’t make sense. I’m still betting that this is just a persistent rumor.
It won’t be Khan. I just can’t see it happening. He’ll be playing a Klingon.
Khan was never a “Latin bad guy.” The character was Indian.
And also originally played by a Latino in Ricardo Mantalban in “space Seed” and in 1982’s “The Wrath of Kahn.” Like Star Trek, America is colorblind to the point of not actually knowing the difference between a Latino and an Indian, they all seem to be the same… :-/
“…also since this is a parrallel universe, who’s to say that Khan will be a bad guy? ” Let me put on my super-geek hat for a moment… This is not exactly a ‘parallel universe’ as it is a alternate timeline. The thing you have to remember that based on the last film, the Star Trek history we have been familiar with for 45 years was the same up to the day that Kirk was born. Then Nero came through the black hole and altered history and the new timeline from trek 11 was created. But theoretically, everything before that has not changed… Including the idea of kahn fleeing Earth in the Botany Bay in 1996 (CNN buried the story from us apparently). But, in theory Kahn is still drifting about somewhere in the Botany Bay with his gang of genetically engineered followers in deep sleep waiting to be found and reawakened.
While that is true, the J.J. and his ‘creative’ partners are well-known for giving contradictory, untrue, mis-directing, and ambiguous information so as to confuse, generate false speculation, and keep people guessing as long as possible. with them, sometimes ‘yes’ means ‘no’ and ‘no’ means ‘maybe’ and ‘maybe’ means ‘I don’t know…” and of course “I don’t know’ means “I do know but am not telling!”
Or they are people, trying to do a job, constantly under media spotlight and trying to keep the media happy while ultimately trying to their job and keep that under wraps so when the film comes there is just a modicum of surprise and delight in their work.
I think the folks at Latino Review let the cat out of the bag sooner than Abrams and Co. wanted, and they’re doing damage control. Why not have Khan? They said Zod would not be in a Superman Returns sequel, yet they used him as a central villain in the Snyder reboot!
As the folks at the Transporter room 3 broadcast have said, Kirk needs to be tested physically as well as mentally to earn his command this time. Khan would be the perfect villain for that.
Andrew, thank you for reminding the world of how this works. Everything up to that point is still very much in play. Khan is sleeping. Nomad is out there. V’Ger is on its way to its destiny. The biggest thing I see with this alternate timeline is SPOCK PRIME IS STILL ALIVE AND HE KNOWS WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN! He can warn someone about the Hobus star, save the Romulan empire, and restore the original timeline. Spock may be old, but he has plenty of time to get this done. Based on that logic, Vulcan will be restored, and the Abrams-verse will have never existed. We are going to need something, because in the reality of this movie business, the Abrams model is unsustainable. These actors are going to be big stars, and we are accustomed to having these roles played by the same actors over a long period of time. Star Trek is not a comic book.
And as I said at the time, I don’t understand why anyone has trouble believing they have no original ideas of their own… I mean, what was the original idea of their first movie? Turning Kirk into a non-charismatic Han Solo for no reason? Having Spock and Uhura hook up? That’s about it aside from the laughable science of it all… They rehashed characters that are nearly 50 years old. Why would you possibly think they’d have a sudden infusion of creativity for the second movie?
Makes the idea of mothballing Trek pretty laughable, if you ask me. The whole point was that people were supposedly tired of the franchise and JJ Abrams was supposed to bring a fresh take and really re-energize things… Yeah, he can really do that by simply re-packaging old content.
In The Wrath of Khan, Kirk and Khan never even get in the same room with each other, and yet, the story, actors, and other various elements are all strong enough to make it a cinematic classic. Think this will match up? Hardly.
Oh, you mean graduating from the Academy as Captain of the Federation Flagship isn’t realistic?
You can’t “restore” the timeline because they are using a modern model of time travel which is that a new alternate reality was created. The original reality is still there but Spock is trapped in the new one.
Yeah, that is how it SHOULD work… then again, plenty was altered both before and after Nero’s arrival in the past. From the design of the Kelvin to the alterations to the personal lives of characters (ie Spock and Uhura), plenty was altered beyond what would have changed as a result of Nero’s trip into the past. It must also be true that we’ve gone to an alternate reality, a parallel universe, otherwise it wasn’t just Spock Prime going back in time, it was Spock and Nero going back in time and erasing everything we’ve ever seen. That is what would’ve happened, but they aren’t presenting it that way… they’re suggesting that the original timeline continued on, simply without Spock going forward… While that doesn’t hold up to how Trek has worked for 45+ years, it’s how it supposedly worked here… and therein you can not only explain all the various differences from the original universe, but you can also ignore all this stupidity because when Abrams and co are done with it, I’d bet we go back to real Trek. At least I hope we do. The idea that Spock would go back in time and destroy over a hundred years of future history, including every action his heroic group of compatriots ever took is silly. He risked the entire 22nd and 23rd centuries to save some whales… he won’t lift a finger to restore Vulcan and the proper timeline? Obviously he must be in a parallel, otherwise he wouldn’t rest until that was set back, right?
You mean colorblind casting is racist now? The claim before was always that NON-colorblind casting was racist.
I really hope that he isn’t playing Khan.
IDW is rehashing old stories for the new Trek comics. Seems no one has any imagination left.
No, no, no… You forgot the first PC rule: white is bad, everything else is sacred. Colorblind casting is only good when it’s an otherwise white character role recast as someone that’s not white. Any other change, regardless, is offensive.
I have to agree, JJTrek clearly starts out as an altered timeline. This really should be no surprise; the “prime” Trek timeline has been altered many times.
My analysis is that the JJverse springs directly from the (ughhh) Enterprise universe. This would explain the higher levels of technology seen in the 2230s, as well as the Kelvin’s captain recognizing Romulans thirty years too soon.
If this is the case, the Enterprise retcon of the Eugenics Wars would be the logical springboard for a (double ughh) Khan movie. And guess what? In that retcon, KHAN IS STILL INDIAN, AND STILL EVIL.
I think it would be a huge mistake to take this next movie head-to-head with the most beloved and best received of the original movies. Furthermore, it’s just lazy.
I think JJ is smarter than this, even though K&O clearly are not.
And it SURE WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE TO INCLUDE A LINE OR TWO OF DIALOG SAYING SO IN THE MOVIE.
Sorry. Sometimes it just has to come out. Four measly lines total would have smoothed over the biggest WTF’s in JJTrek.
These are the same screenwriters who, never having heard of aircraft carriers, decided the Autobots didn’t need spaceships because they turned into vehicles.
Oh, and thought a regular supernova (cuz they NEVER SAID OTHERWISE) would threaten a galaxy and blow up a planet many light years away.
Repackaging the old stuff was really what JJTrek was all about. I think they succeeded in that respect.
That said, I think it would be very stupid to take on what fans and critics alike regard as the best Trek movie. I also think it would be lazy as hell. Almost as lazy as… time travel! And Romulan villains, again!
Argh. I’m talking myself into a deep depresson here.
Here’s an odd thought: just wait until something official comes from the writers/producers and ignore any rumors. But, I realize that would make too much sense.
It IS in there. In the scene where Spock leads the crew in a revelation about where Nero got the technology for creating black holes. Watch it again.