Del Toro is probably sick of being villains, and Bardem has been avoiding them since his Chigurh role.
Cumberbatch?
Seriously?
I can't imagine him being scary, weird maybe but not scary. Bringing Khan into this new franchise is just saying 'we have no fresh ideas' and that's what this remake is all supposed to be built on. The other films and the many tv episodes have covered basically everything.
I'm actually very happy they're using Khan, as this is an alternate timeline and they're free to change the story.
The only thing they need to stick with since it would have been pre time-lime crossover would be Khan and his crew in hyper-sleep aboard the Botany Bay drifting in space and Khan being a power-hungry genius megalomaniac.
They could have a Klingon (or other race) ship find him instead of the Enterprise, or have him wake-up due to some other event etc. Many possibilities to go a completely new direction.
But yeah, dude just doesn't shout out as being Khan:
Re: Re: Re: So they cast Khan for JJ's second film...
Of course, there's other ways of getting Khan in the story but the tension and expectancy in WOK was brought about by Khan being personally linked with Kirk and their history together. He may just be 'another villain' and no more than that. Or this is the first meeting between the two and it's just setting it up for a future revenge film.
The gaffe in WOK was hilarious though, where he 'remembers' Chekov.
Re: Re: Re: Re: So they cast Khan for JJ's second film...
I'd expect they could fit the meeting, betrayal and revenge plots all into this one film(should they go that path again) and not have Khan coming back in a JJ Star Trek 3 or 4 or other.
Who knows, they could start it off with the meeting of the two chars, have Khan try his tomfoolery, Kirk bests him and then they FFW 'X' amount of years in the film and we have a grunge-holding butt-hurt Khan seeking vengeance.
I'd personally prefer a different story and not a new paint-job of the original though.
Holy shit they better make that guy over.
He must have been picked for acting chops or something....
Kinda disappointed that Bardem didn't get it though.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: So they cast Khan for JJ's second film...
Yeah, and whats more I think it's clear with the casting of Cumberbatch that they are going for a more cerebal character and not a 'physical adversary. The guy has played Sherlock Holmes and did a portrayal of Stephen Hawking so I think this confirms this. I can't imagine him being a 'physical' enemy although saying that Montalban wasn't either so...
The article doesn't mention anything about "Sherlock" being cast as Khan. It just says "bad-guy". And even IMDB only has his casting as rumored.
I do however think he is Villian material. He's British (always a good thing), and he has a Nazi-esk appearance here: (please log in to view the image)
Re: Re: Re: Re: So they cast Khan for JJ's second film...
There was an alternate take done of that scene where Khan says
"Ohhh i never forget a face that runs by me in the hall, Mr......Checkov, isn't it?"
LOL
i find it funny when they entered the system to go to ceti alpha 6, that their scensors didn't notice that a planet was missing?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: So they cast Khan for JJ's second film...
Yeah, it's an interesting one because he could have seen Chekov as just a random crewman, or even on some computer file when he took over the ship but the delivery of the line was as if he'd met him and they knew each other. Even Chekov's quotes towards Khan suggest that he knew OF Khan and the incident with Kirk rather than actually having been there.
He was probably the only character available to find Khan because it really couldn't have been Scotty, Sulu or Uhura and definitely not Spock or McCoy who were needed on the Enterprise. I tend to think the introduction of Saavik shunted Chekov of the team a little so it was a case of 'tag, you're it, even if it doesn't make sense!'
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: So they cast Khan for JJ's second film...
That's the thing though they could of got Sulu i guess, he's been on plenty of away missions.
but it's not as bad as the next generation (insurection) where Worf just shows up out of no where and they start to explain why he is there then they quickly pan off screen and let the conversation trickle away so there is no explanation as to why he is there. that was a big WTF for me in the theater.