By Now that’s a damn shame. There’s been a rumor floating around that Benicio Del Toro, previously offered a role as a “main villain” role in the next Star Trek film, was going to be playing the infamous Khan Noonien Singh, the villain played with immense relish by Ricardo Montalban in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan.I’m not ok with J.J. Abrams and co. going back to the Khan well for their rebooted universe, so I was getting ready to spew some good old fashioned angry talk, when we get word that Del Toro has dropped out of the film entirely, as negotiations for his deal have fallen through over this past weekend. The film’s lost a great actor, and Del Toro has lost a chance for a big win, which he sorely needs after The Wolfman.
Rumors still persist, though, that Khan is going to be the primary villain of the piece. Look, kids. The entire point of the Star Trek reboot is that we can tell new stories. I’m not saying Khan doesn’t exist in this world Abrams has created, but he doesn’t need to be the thing. Just because Christopher Nolan managed to yank a command performance out of a rebooted Joker, one that lays all other cinematic performances to shame, doesn’t mean that it can happen again with Khan.
Just give us some goddamned Klingons and something for Kirk to sex on.
[Via /Film]