With only a few weeks before fans get to see the first official footage from J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness, plot details for the sequel have started to surface giving us additional tidbits about what we can expect.
It’s been speculated that the villain, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, might in fact be a younger version of Khan Noonien Singh. In case you’re a newb Trekkie, Khan was the memorable antagonist from Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan and the original series’ episode, Space Seed.
A synopsis released by Paramount via The Film Stage doesn’t exactly tell us whether the baddie will be Khan, but does give fans some idea of the challenges Captain James T. Kirk et al will face in the new film.
It reads: “When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction.
“As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.”
Audiences will have a clearer picture when the first 9-minutes of Star Trek Into Darkness screens in IMAX theatres ahead of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which opens Dec. 14.
The new sequel is written by Prometheus scribe Damon Lindelof, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, and once again will star Chris Pine (Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Spock). Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller and Cumberbatch round out the cast.
The film is due May 17, 2013.
In the meantime, we want to know: Are you excited by the prospect of seeing a younger version of Khan in the new film? Let us know in the comments.
Twitter: @markhdaniell