Star Trek Into Darkness: Did EW Just Spill The Beans About Cumberbatch’s Role?

Cat, out of bag? Worms, out of can?

By David Wharton | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

UPDATE: We just finished reading the EW story in question, and it DOES NOT confirm the rumor below. It could be somebody jumping the gun, it could be a mistake, it’s not clear. Stay tuned…

 

If this all proves to be true, it’ll be interesting to see if any heads roll over this. This has been one of the biggest mysteries and entertainment stories of the past year, so you have to figure the official announcement would be a big deal. It’s the sort of thing that you’d expect to be revealed in a press conference, or a new trailer, or anything, really, more exciting than a random webpage from Entertainment Weekly. At this point, Abrams and crew haven’t confirmed anything, so we have to list this as a rumor…but it definitely has the air of truth about it.

Everything below here is full of HUGE SPOILERS, so don’t scroll down past the adorable picture of Geordi Cat if you want to remain ignorant.

Cat

Alright then. Everybody ready? Then we won’t beat around the bush. Here’s an image taken from Entertainment Weekly’s back issues store (first spotted by Comic Book Movie). And a bit more spoiler space, just to be sure…

 

 

 

 

Here we go:

EW

So, outside the unlikely possibility of it being a mistake on the part of some EW web lackey, that seems pretty cut and dried, don’t it? The “Kirk & Khan” headline is one two different covers for the current issue of EW, the other featuring “Kirk & Spock.” So, for the moment at least, this definitely seems to be legit.

And if it is true, I’m glad we can all stop arguing about the mystery, but I also think this is one of the laziest and least interesting choices they could have made. I’m not in the hardline camp that thinks Khan should never be used in this Abrams verse, but to play that card this soon? What was the point of creating a new universe at all if we’re just going to cruise through the same territory?

There is still the matter of Robert April — who we thought could well be Cumberbatch’s true identity — appearing in the precursor comic series, so it seems likely that he will factor into this in some fashion as well. When April first appeared in the comic a few weeks ago, some argued that his character would in fact be played by Peter Weller, who is in the Into Darkness cast but whose character still hasn’t been officially identified.

If Cumberbatch is indeed Khan, this would give credence to recent rumors that perhaps Weller’s April discovers Khan on the Botany Bay, as opposed to Kirk in the original timeline. Why he’s suddenly a white British dude remains to be seen.

Stay tuned to GFR for more when it’s available.