Star Trek 2 Villain Is...?

Karl Urban (Dr. McCoy) may have accidently let slip to SFX who the main villain of Star Trek 2 is while doing marathon interviews to promote his movie Dredd. In the interview he said spoke of Trek and Benedict Cumberbatch saying "He’s awesome, he’s a great addition, and I think his Gary Mitchell is going to be exemplary."

Gary Mitchell was a character in the original series 2nd pilot episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Mitchell was a long time friend of Kirk's who was also a crew member on the Enterprise. When the Enterprise attempts to cross the galactic barrier (border between our universe and space to next universe), Mitchell and Dr. Elizabeth Dehner where given mental capabilities that grew in power with every moment. As if to prove the phrase "absolute power corrupts absolutely", the more power Mitchell had, the more corrupt he became until his humanity began to slip away. In a final struggle with Kirk and Dehner on a planet surface, both near gods were killed.

For a while now, the villain of the movie, played by Cumberbatch (Sherlock) has been speculated to be a host of classic Trek characters. Early theories were it would be a more sympathetic figure like Mitchell with other characters like Trelane, and Harry Mudd in the running. Most of those characters were dismissed in some form or fashion with a new favorite emerging quickly among fans - Khan Noonien Singh. It was supposedly even confirmed but that has sense changed.

In the end there are cons and cons to the theory (see below) on why this is possible. Really though I tend to think this Mitchell idea is just as unlikely as Khan. I still believe they are going to stick with mostly new characters that might have hints to The Original Series characters but not specifically those characters. As always time will tell but for something like this, I say the door remains open to new theories despite Urban's statement.

Cons
- The character was already used to launch IDW's ongoing Star Trek comic series. Comics tied directly into movies would be used to boost sells, not as a secret teaser like this.
- Trek writer Robert Orci flatly denied the character was in the movie.
- Why would a mini-god need to get in a fist fight with Spock as seen in set pics?
- Karl Urban is an old hat at keeping secrets, unlikely make that mistake on accident. Also as a professed Trekker, would have the knowledge to name drop characters to get fans into a tizzy. Also has wonder PR benefit of making a minor interview into a story that mentions his movie over and over all over the web.
- Not an original villain which is the direction Abrams and the writers have indicated they were going in.

Pros
- Provides a more sympathetic bad guy then straight up villain that has been part of most of the Trek movies
- Nothing like god-like powers to even the fight when its Vulcan vs. human
- Character is in Starfleet dress so being a crew member fits
- Would then indicate that Alice Eve is playing Dr. Elizabeth Dehner
- Trek comics were sold as occasionally tying into the sequel with hints being dropped in the various issues about the movie.
- Orci has been known to lie to fans to hide story beats as did with Transformers films.