After the outstanding success of his Star Trek reboot, director J.J. Abrams has found himself fielding questions about the film’s sequel on a near daily basis. Who will be the villain? Does Chris Pine have as hard a time with Tribbles as William Shatner? Etc, etc. Luckily, Abrams is one of Hollywood’s more nerd friendly directors, so you can always count on him giving you a decent answer.
Recently, MTV caught up with Abrams for an exclusive interview about Star Trek 2. In the interview, Abrams discusses some possibilities for the sequel and the relative leeway the screenwriters have in bringing old characters back to the big screen. Care to guess which name brought up the most excitement? You guessed it, KHANNNNN!!!!, a.k.a Khan Noonien Singh, the genetically engineered superhuman played by Ricardo Montelban in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan.
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From the interview:
“I think one of the byproducts of doing this movie was we were able to dispel the obvious and understandable concerns—how can ‘Star Trek’ possibly exist without those original cast members? Now that we are in a parallel existence with what fans of the original series love so much, we could introduce any number of characters, settings, references and situations that the original series introduced. Dealing with Khan would certainly be a challenge, but we had an equal challenge in finding our crew of the Enterprise.”
Abrams also clarified, however, that he didn’t necessarily want to simply remake old episodes or movies.
“While I don’t want to approach the second film as a remake of episodes we’ve seen in the past… nothing is off limits in terms of what we’re discussing,” he said. “When Bob Orci and the others who know ‘Trek’ so well, the fun of working with them is they know this universe so deeply they’re the ones who are always considering what it means to deal with the stuff in the past, so it’ll be exciting.”
You can check out the full interview by heading over to MTV.
Personally, I think Khan would be an amazing character to see brought back to the big screen, especially given the excellent casting of Kirk and Spock. On the other hand, it’s becoming rarer and rarer to find a good original story in Hollywood these days, so part of me would rather they start fresh with an interesting new villain for the new look crew.
What do you think? Would you like to see Khan in a Star Trek sequel, or should the writers try something new?
Source: MTV
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43 Comments
Actually Vic your making 790’s point. “Enterprise” wasn’t thought out and it showed from the beginning. This new team must do better than that. Perhaps if they were doing a weekly series it would be justified but to spend two to three years working on one show, the audience deserves better than left overs. Are you going to eat left overs for Thanksgiving this year? I think not…
Kahn was awesome! But any new Kahn story would be a retread.
As it’s been said; there are plenty of baddies to choose from. Why rehash. The next one pretty much HAS to focus on the Klingons (IMO). But there are plenty to choose from. Either the Tholians or Gorn would be cool.
Personally, I LOVED what Enterprise did with the Andorians! (a diamond in the rough for that series) They’d play out well on the big screen I think.
@the old man
Allow me to use your own analogy against you. I may not eat leftovers for Thanksgiving. But the day after thanksgiving, I will eat THANKSGIVING LEFTOVERS!
In other words. Khan isn’t merely “leftovers”, he is best food you will eat all year! Who wouldn’t want to go back for another helping?!
Some might even say that the LEFTOVERS the next day are EVEN better than the first meal. You know what you are getting, yet somehow, it is just as yummy if not more so. (I would)
@790: Star Trek will be dead for you? Really? Then your fandom truly runs deep. Let it come to pass, then perhaps those of us who actually enjoy things can continue to discuss it. Dor sho gha!
@Evan, I think your idea about them asking old Spock about Khan was utter genius. This would not be a tired revisit of old properties, but in fact a new take on one of the greatest stories of Trek lore.
As far as Khan being overrated, WHAT?!!??! Really? TWOK was not just the best Trek film, it was overrall a great movie. To me, the writers would have to work infinitely harder to retail such a classic story with new twists and completely different circumstances. Maybe even have new Khan form an alliance with Klingons and the Enterprise crew have a full-scale war on their hands. I mean, come on! As far as nobody being able to portray Khan, I think I mentioned it earlier, but Javier Bardem? Perfect. The man is a giant. He is suave, sophisticated, physically imposing, a fantastic actor, and hails from Spain(Montalban was Mexican.) I’d love to see the story revisited. Not as a last resort, but as the most-desired story of fans of all ages, be it my parents that watched TOS when it first aired, or my generation that had to catch up via DVD.
@huntthejest
Yeah I should have typed Abrams Star Trek world will be dead to me,,, and it will,,,
And sorry bro but the best parts of TWOK are in the last 30 min,,, deal with it.
Peace through Landru,,, *#$0
Evan TWOK IS the leftovers! Leftover from the TOS episode Space Seed. Your talking week old left overs, you know when the turkey gets slimy…
Yeah its bizarre Old Man, Khan was just a blow hard alpha male in TWOK. What made that film amazing was the ship battles and of course Spocks death,,,
What’s with all the Khan love? I don’t get it but hey whatever,,,
If they must have their Kahn’s baloney then hey at least skip a movie. I’ll even concede that Evan’s idea is excellent, but to really make it pay they should put the scene in the movie following the entire one it will take showing Khan taking over the Klingon’s or Romulans or whoever. Then you would have time to build up confidence in old Spock’s experience. It would make the “rug pull” only that much better. OH yeah, better film the scene now though, Nimoy is getting long in the tooth, who knows if he’ll be around when you really need him…
This kind of brings up a couple of questions. First of all Kirk would have nothing to do with killing Kahn’s wife. Where’s the revenge angle? Wouldn’t it take decades for even a ship full of meta-humans to take over an entire empire? Look how hokey “Star Trek: The wrath of Picard’s brother” was? What about them being human? If you think they were under heavy security in “Space Seed,” what would their captivity be like under the Klingons? Klingons following humans? I’ll defer to Kahless on this part…
Shatner for sure. a young superpowerful khan, battled by young and old Kirk. and not necessarily winning.
McCoy and Scotty and Uhura saving the day.
Shatner for sure. Young Khan battles young Kirk and old Kirk, with Khan winning…until McCoy, Scotty and Uhura battle back…and Checkhov sticks something in Khan’s ear to finish the job.
All valid points from all angle’s but no one touched on the fact that Khan was in the 2nd movie from the TOS, now almost eveyone wants Khan for the 2nd moive again WHY?????? Is it a must to have Khan in the 2nd movie??? The Gorn or a evil Harry Mudd (lol) on Mudd. I think if we redo a story from the TOS they should think of the Empire crossing over to our side this time….. just a thought but a good one IMO…
till next time
10,000 quatros for 20,000 quatros againt….
I actually wouldn’t even mind if the Tholians were explored more deeply in the movie. I loved TWOK (although my favorite was TVH), but I think doing Khan again would be a rehash at this point. Bring in something new OR something that wasn’t explained as well in TOS. Let’s get something NEW.
I think doing Khan could be saved for another film, but as far as him being in the second film-well, that’d be trippy. Just as an homage to the original sequel(wrap your heads around that one.) But maybe this one should focus on Doomsday machine, or the vast possibilities of a Klingon war, or even deal with a “force of nature” type villain, like one of various higher beings confronted in TOS, and have Botany Bay discovered in the process. Then Khan could be used in a later film.
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