Several different sources had reported that Benedict Cumberbatch was actually playing classic Trek villain Khan in J.J. Abrams' second
Star Trek flick months before the movie came out, but whenever the director or any cast members were quizzed about this it was firmly denied. Of course, they were lying -Cumberbatch was indeed playing the genetically enhanced super-villain. So why keep up the ruse when the cat was already out of the bag? Well, Abrams reckons it was all to keep the studio happy.
"The truth is because it was so important to the studio that we not angle this thing for existing fans. If we said it was Khan, it would feel like you've really got to know what 'Star Trek' is about to see this movie," he revealed to MTV.
"That would have been limiting. I can understand their argument to try to keep that quiet, but I do wonder if it would have seemed a little bit less like an attempt at deception if we had just come out with it." In hindsight Abrams feels that they perhaps should have just been upfront about it from the start.
"The truth is I think it probably would have been smarter just to say upfront 'This is who it is.' It was only trying to preserve the fun of it, and it might have given more time to acclimate and accept that's what the thing was." He is also asked about the rumor's that
Attack The Block director Joe Cornish is the man who'll take over the reigns of the franchise for
Star Trek 3, but although he admits that he'd love to see that, he says as far as he knows everything is still "up in the air".
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.