Star Trek: Strange New Worlds co-creator Alex Kurtzman confirms the show’s connection to famed villain Khan. The newest live-action Star Trek streaming show for Paramount+ promises a more traditional Trek experience as it returns to the good old days of true episodic storytelling.
Other new Trek shows like Discovery and Picard have of course dealt with season-long arcs, an approach that flies in the face of the weekly adventure format embraced by Star Trek: The Original Series and TNG. But the format won’t be the only familiar element returning for Strange New Worlds, as the show also brings back the Starship Enterprise and its original captain Christopher Pike, alongside Spock, Uhura, Number One and other characters first introduced in the 1960s Star Trek show. Of course new characters were also announced for Strange New Worlds, including one named La'an Noonien-Singh – a name that immediately raised eyebrows among Trek fans. True Trekkies of course know that the full name of classic Trek villain Khan is indeed Khan Noonien-Singh, leading to speculation that La’an is in fact a descendant of the genetically engineered super-being played by Ricardo Montalban and later Benedict Cumberbatch.
That perfectly understandable Khan speculation has now been confirmed to be spot-on. Speaking during the Paramount+ TCA event, Strange New Worlds co-creator Kurtzman ended all doubt and indicated La’an and Khan are connected. “She's related to Khan for sure and the rest will unfold,” Kurtzman said.
Kurtzman’s desire to be forthcoming about the connection between La’an and Khan is indeed refreshing after what went down the last time Khan appeared in a Star Trek property. Fans will well remember the games Kurtzman, J.J. Abrams and company played before the release of Star Trek: Into Darkness when speculation held that Cumberbatch was playing Khan, and producers tried to hide this fact by saying he was actually playing a character named John Harrison. The somewhat lame ruse was exposed however when the movie came out and it emerged that Cumberbatch was Khan after all.
Of course just revealing that La’an is related to Khan – something that was obvious by her name – doesn’t say anything about the nature of the relationship. Strange New Worlds obviously takes place before the events of Star Trek: TOS, and therefore before the episode where the Enterprise first encountered a cryogenically frozen Khan and his crew aboard a ship that had been floating adrift in space for centuries. Introducing a relative of Khan to the timeline at a point before Captain Kirk’s first meeting with Khan himself is an interesting move that will surely require a lot of explanation.
Obviously having the actual Khan appear on the new show would break the timeline entirely, but having a relative of Khan’s appear at least allows some reference to that character to make its way into the story. Why such a reference seemed necessary to Kurtzman and company is anyone’s guess, but of course new Star Trek has shown no shyness about unleashing fan service in ways that sometimes seem random and not very useful. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds beams onto Paramount+ on May 5, 2022.
Source: Paramount+