Del Toro is GOOOOOONE as KHAAAAAAN!
Mon, December 5, 2011 
Just burns me up the more I think about it.
Why in God's name go out of your way with such a complex (and in the final product, plot-holey) approach to rebooting the Star Trek franchise creating a brand new continuity where the character dynamics are different (i.e. Spock & Uhura), they're working together as a team 10 years early and major events going down as a result (i.e. the death of Kirk's father, the obliteration of Vulcan, etc.) and have the sky be the limit with wherever you go next just so you can say, "Fuck it...let's just reboot Khan?"
Needless to say, introducing him as the villain for the first post-reboot installment hasn't sat well with me.
Vulture is here to tell us two things this afternoon. One, yep, it's Khan Noonien Singh as the chief bad-guy and, two, surprisingly it won't be Benicio del Toro leading his following of genetically engineered supermen to take over the Enterprise and woo any female cadets into mutiny. A deal couldn't be reach over money, it seems.
So Abrams will have to find someone else for Star Trek II: Whatever the Hell They’re Going to Call It of Khan. Of course if you remember back two years ago with Coming Soon's scoop about Abrams wanting Nestor Caronell for Khan in the (then) hypothetical event he'd be in the next film. Considering Star Trek had a cast full of lesser-to-complete unknowns in the leads, I get the impression Paramount are the ones pushing hard for a "name" to face off against Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto.
Either way, cameras roll next month so prepare for another month of rumors and another two years of my bitching.
Reader Comments (6)
So basically latino review was right again, hitfix must feel dumb... or cover themselves by saying JJ said no to del toro as khan. Not surprised paramount wants khan and possibly a name actor, even though thefirst movie was considered a success how much profit did it really make when the movie looked like it was made for over 200 million.
i was thinking what if the umors are getting mixed up. most news we been hearing is klingons and all that. What if who ever heard the news got khan and some klingon mixed up?
How many rival websites, NOT including this one mind you, have given Latino Review shit for just about every scoop they've had and they've been right? The sad thing is is that they won't apologize, they never do. :(
As for Khan being the main villain, on one hand it's lazy but on the other hand it's bold and risky. (In a good way) IGN's article of the pros and cons of having Khan in the sequel (no pun intended there ha ha) hits the nail right on the head as to why and how they can really do a lot with him.
The intention of the reboot wasn't for them to HAVE to do new things WITH THE CHOICE OF VILLAINS anyway. They're free to do WHATEVER THEY WANT. The choice of the villain can be/seem lazy but it's what happens to these characters this time that make it exciting. Just like the first one having a Khan like character with Nero, who was basically Spock's "Khan," seemed lazy. But in the context of the film and how great and unpredictable it was it turned out great.
So I think we should be a little more open minded to them using Khan. We all know we're going to see it anyway and that's it's most likely going to be as good, if not better, than the first one. So we'll just see I guess. Cheers! :)
Plus, no matter what they do it'll be new to the general public. They are the main target demographic for this reboot series. That's what fans and Trekkies are forgetting. They think it's still about them, or just about them, but it's not.
I'm glad Del Toro isn't onboard, I don't like him as an actor.
So Jamie I know you're not happy with Khan as the main villain, but do you think the movie won't be any good now? Or do you just think that Khan is a lazy choice and that's it? :) Cause really Nero was also lazy too. He was a Khan clone, Spock's "Khan" if you will. And yet the movie played unexpectedly great, and unpredictable. I think besides Khan being found on the Botany Bay everything else happening in the movie will be different and unexpected.