Benedict Cumberbatch’s Star Trek Into Darkness Villain Revealed…Maybe
Is the cat finally out of the bag?
This article is more than 2 years old
Well, here it is, the moment we’ve all been waiting for, arguing about, and generally poking at for a year or so. Early reviews of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness have been hitting the interwebs over the past couple of days, and the inevitable has happened: somebody has decided to leak some spoilers, in this case the true identity of “John Harrison,” the villain played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Assuming, of course, that the story isn’t just hogwash to further mess with already-frazzled Trek fans. I’m not saying it is…but I ain’t saying it ain’t, either. All I am saying is…
MASSIVE POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW!!!
NO REALLY, WE’RE NOT KIDDING!!!
He’s Khan. That’s the claim being made by the website Furious Fanboys. I’m not familiar with the site, so I can’t speak to their reliability, but they definitely do have very specific spoilers that have the ring of truth about them. We’re talking “spoil the entire movie” levels here, so we’re not going to include all the details they go into there. Instead, here is the relevant bit regarding Cumberbatch’s identity.
Benedict Cumberbatch is playing Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness. All that bullshit of him not being Khan and really ‘John Harrison’ was just a cover to hide the truth from moviegoers. Oh, he does go by ‘John Harrison’ in the movie…but that’s not his real name. He reveals his name to Kirk later in the movie.
Without going into all the specifics, I will say that the explanation of how Khan comes into play makes sense, and I think it has the potential to be a good flick. It’s obviously treading over hallowed ground, and it’s obviously making changes to the character that are sort of inexplicable — nobody’s going to be mistaking Cumberbatch for Ricardo Montalban anytime soon — but I think you’ve got to either just accept that or don’t. Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing Cumberbatch chew the scenery as this “alternate universe” version of the villain. I still would have rather Abrams and company had gone a more interesting/less predictable route…but I’ll still be there opening night, hoping to have a good time at the movies.
