Alicia Malone
Over the weekend an internet kerfuffle ensued over who Benicio Del Toro was going to play – if the negotiations were successful – in J..J Abrams’ “Star Trek” sequel. Latino Review said he was Khan, the iconic villain made famous by the late great Ricardo Montalban, but HitFix, citing an email response from director Abrams regarding the Latino Review scoop, said the scoop was off.
So which is it? Well, according to Vulture, Khan is indeed the villain of the “Star Trek” sequel BUT He won’t be played by “Wolfman” star Del Toro; the actor dropped out of negotiations last Wednesday due to monetary matters.
Says the site :
Insiders tell Vulture that the deal actually went asunder last Wednesday after parties couldn’t come to terms over monetary issues.
Abrams will now have to move quickly to fill the role, but which villain from Star Trek lore has he made the focal point of the new film? When Del Toro’s name was first linked to the project, speculation ran rampant that he might play Khan, immortalized once before on the big screen by Ricardo Montalban in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. On Friday, the site Latino Review claimed to have confirmed that choice of villain, though Abrams promptly replied to Hitfix that the report was “not true.” Still, the famously secretive director was probably trying to keep the cat in the interstellar bag for a little while longer, as Vulture hears from a highly placed source that Khan is indeed the film’s baddie. Perhaps Abrams was taking his cues from Man of Steel director Zack Snyder, who strongly denied to the press last year that General Zod would be the villain in his Superman reboot … then cast Michael Shannon as Zod a few months later.
Whatcha think of Khan being the bad guy? And who could replace Del Toro?
