The identity of Benedict Cumberbatch’s villain in JJ Abrams Star Trek sequel is still a bit of a contentious issue, and I have a feeling that we won’t be getting any real answers any time soon. However, based on his past performances on the small and big screen (if you’ve not seen him in BBC’s Sherlock reimagining, then you’re off my Xmas card list), there’s a fairly good chance that whomever he’ll be playing it will certainly be memorable.
Writer Damon Lindelof certainly thinks so. He spoke to Collider to spill the details on Cumberbatch’s performance, as well as what he’s seen of the production thus far
“Benedict Cumberbatch, I can already say with a certain degree of confidence that he is gonna give an iconic film performance and one of the best sci-fi performances that I’ve ever seen. And not even having seen the movie yet, just sitting there in video village with the headphones on. So I’m really psyched.”
Cumberbatch was not the only actor that Lindelof had praise for though, saying the returning cast is certainly bringing back the chemistry that made the first film a hit, as well as having the newcomers bring their A-game.
“And then when you see all the actors again, and Kirk in his yellow—which we only really see at the very, very end of the first movie—and start playing those interactions between he and Bones, he and Scotty, Spock and Bones, etc. And then bringing in some new blood, Alice Eve is awesome.”
Lindelof also described what it was like walking around on the Star Trek set, especially now that the studios have made one dramatic change from the previous film’s production:
“It was incredible, and I think that Trek 2—there’s certainly an instinct to just go bigger in the second movie and one of the things that we did was we connected all the sets, so you can just basically follow the actors off the bridge, into a turbo lift, down, walking through a plaza, into the med bay as opposed to [having to] cut every time you do that, because when we were shooting on the Paramount stages we just didn’t have the money to connect all the sets. So the first day that I actually walked on the Enterprise, you walked through the Enterprise and it’s a very insular experience of like, ‘Wow I’m actually on a starcraft.’ “
The Star Trek sequel hits theaters May 17, 2013.
Last Updated: June 4, 2012
James Francis
June 4, 2012 at 18:47
I’m still begrudging him for Lost. If this was for a TV show and not a movie (where writers have little power) I’d have just skipped this.