Fan Favorite DC Villain Actor Makes His Star Trek Debut
Kirk Acevedo, who plays the villain Ricardo Diaz in The CW's Arrow, makes his Star Trek debut as a Vulcan crime boss in Star Trek: Picard's "Imposters."
Have you ever found yourself thinking, “there ought to be more Vulcan crime lords?” If so, Star Trek: Picard and Kirk Acevedo have got you covered. Known to DC fans as the ruthless Ricardo Diaz — aka the Dragon — of The CW’s Arrow, Acevedo made his debut in the Trek franchise in this week’s Picard episode “Imposters.”
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Star Trek: Picard recruited Kirk Acevedo as part of episode 5’s B story. Stymied by their handler (who later proves to be Michelle Forbes as Ro Laren), Worf and Raffi take to the streets of M’Talas Prime to find out exactly how someone managed to break in to the Daystrom Institute. They are met by Acevedo’s Krinn and a whole lot of heavily armed men.
In Season 3’s second episode, Raffi attempted to trick the Ferengi Sneed (Aaron Stanford) into giving up intel, and when things go sideways, Worf steps in and — along with tearing through the crook’s men — separates Sneed’s head from his shoulders. In the more recent episode, Worf and Raffi seem to think Krinn would be grateful, but as it turns out the Vulcan and the Ferengi grew up so closely that Krinn refers to the late Sneed as his “brother.”
As you’re watching the Star Trek episode and noting the ears Kirk Acevedo is wearing, you may naturally assume he’s a Romulan. After all, what kind of Vulcan becomes a crime boss? When Raffi puts the question to him, he answers exactly as you’d expect one of the pointy-eared aliens to respond: “There can be no utopia without crime, ergo an organized criminal enterprise is logical.”
Long before he was trading barbs with Star Trek heroes, Kirk Acevedo was doing everything he could to make life a living hell for the titular hero of Arrow. His war on Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) began in Season 6 of the Arrowverse’s inaugural series, and fans responded so well that, as TVLine and others reported at the time, he was promoted to series regular in Season 7, which proved to be the show’s penultimate season (and final full season). He gives Queen a fight like no one else, until he’s finally murdered by Oliver’s half-sister Emiko (Sea Shimooka).
Just like the cases of Todd Stashwick who plays the surprisingly popular Titan Captain Liam Shaw, and Stanford who played Sneed, Star Trek: Picard‘s recruitment of Kirk Acevedo probably has a lot to do with its showrunner Terry Matalas. Matalas is the creator of the acclaimed but short-lived 12 Monkeys series and Acevedo — like Stashwick and Stanford — appeared on the SyFy show. He played Jose, best friend to Stanford’s Cole.
