Monday, December 5, 2011

Benicio Del Toro Out; Khan Back In for Trek Sequel?

NY Magazine's Vulture blog reports that Benicio Del Toro will not be playing the big bad of the Star Trek sequel. It seems contract negotiations fell through last Wednesday due terms of payment. This brings up a few questions. Does this mean Peter Weller is his replacement or doing a different role? Does this mean that Khan is back in play as the film's big bad?

This past Friday news broke that Khan was confirmed by various sources as the bad guy of the film but this was shortly shot down by J.J. Abrams with a short "not true" statement. However, Abrams loves his secrets. He doesn't lie to fans or reporters but he will either go with a non-answer or an answer that can be interpreted in different ways. In this case, it could be "not true" to Del Toro playing Khan instead of "not true" to Khan being in the film. As usual time will tell.

I think the production dodged a bullet with Benicio Del Toro backing out of the film. Based on his role choices during his career, the world of sci-fi would be an ugly fit. At the very least I seriously doubt he would be able to embrace Trekkies and anything associated with fandom. As for Khan, I still maintain that the Trek "Supreme Court" of Abrams and the writers are going to want to strike out in their own direction and try to create an original story that may have little easter eggs to past Trek stories but not rely completely on it like a Khan story would.

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