Benedict Cumberbatch Opens Up About Star Trek Into Darkness’ Villain
This article is more than 2 years old
While there’s not much known about Benedict Cumberbatch’s villain character in J. J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness, there have been plenty of rumors and speculation about his identity. Whether you think he will play iconic villain Khan, supernatural superfreak Gary Mitchell, or an amalgam of both; Cumberbatch, Abrams, and Bad Robot have all been close-lipped about the Star Trek Into Darkness‘ villain.
In an interview, Benedict Cumberbatch talked about the personality and demeanor of his John Harrison character. Cumberbatch calls him “a psychological master” and manipulates the people around him to carry out his dastardly demands and desires. Cumberbatch reveals,
“When J.J. described the role to me… he described someone who was, in movie terms, a mixture of Hannibal Lecter, Jack in The Shining, and the Joker in Batman… He’s someone who has enormous physical strength. He’s someone who is incredibly dangerous, both as a physical entity and through the use of various technologies and weapons and who performs acts of what I would describe as terrorism. He’s also a psychological master. He manipulates the minds of those around him to do his bidding in a very, very subtle way.”
It really seems like a big trend in Hollywood movie villains to compare them to Heath Ledger’s Joker from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Recently, Sharlto Copley described his Kruger villain from Neill Blomkamp’s upcoming Elysium as having the charisma of The Joker. Even Javier Bardem’s Silva character from the recent James Bond movie Skyfall had extreme Joker-like traits.
At the moment, it appears that Benedict Cumberbatch’s John Harrison is more menacing as Eric Bana’s Nero villain character in the reboot Star Trek in 2009. Nero was pretty much a non-presence in the film, despite the fact that he was the film’s driving force. Maybe this is why Abrams is so secretive with the identity of Star Trek Into Darkness’ villain. Possibly to overshadow Nero shortcomings and to overplay John Harrison’s true madness. We shall certainly see how Benedict Cumberbatch will compare against Eric Bana this May but it already seems like he’s a much better villain.
Star Trek Into Darkness will hit theaters everywhere on May 17th 2013 in IMAX 3D.
