Questions have been circling J.J. Abrams‘ sequel to his reboot of Star Trek ever since his first film was released. What will the plot be? What characters will be involved? However, the question that most people have been pondering has been who is going to be the next villain to face Captain Kirk and his crew?
Ain’t It Cool News is reporting that writer/producer Roberto Orci has been so kind as to give us a short list of some characters that we won’t be seeing in the sequel. First up is actually one of the good guys from The Original Series, Janice Rand, who had a bit part on the show as a yeoman
The other four are villains, three that appeared in The Original Series, while one is actually a race that wouldn’t show up until The Next Generation. Number two on the list is Gary Mitchell, a human who ended up with amazing powers in the show’s second pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before. The third is listed as “Charlie X,” but I think we can assume this to mean Charlie Evans from the episode Charlie X, a teenager who also had strange powers.
Fourth is Ruk, an android from the episode What Are Little Girls Made Of? Finally, Orci tells us that The Borg, the infamous mechanical beings seeking to assimilate other species who first made their appearance in a season two episode of The Next Generation entitled Q Who, will not be making an appearance.
It’s too bad that the above mentioned characters are being ruled out. It may have been interesting to see them in the new film, particularly the villains, despite the fact that it’s most likely that only fans of the show would know who they are.
What’s also interesting about this list is a character that he doesn’t mention, the one who’s actually rumored to be the film’s main villain: Khan Noonien Singh. Is Orci just pulling our chain by mentioning small-time villains from the show while not referring to the multiple rumors about Khan? There certainly have been plenty of conflicting stories about it. Certain sources have practically confirmed that Khan is indeed the villain, while Simon Pegg has declared to the contrary. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait long before we get a solid confirmation one way or the other.
Orci also went on to talk about the film’s title, saying that he guesses that there’s a 75% chance of there being the words “Star Trek” in it. I would think the percentage would be higher than that.
He also adds that he has been in talks with CBS about the possibility of another Star Trek animated series. The villains in his list were indeed obscure, but so is the knowledge of The Animated Series, which ran in 1973 and 1974 and featured the voices of almost the entire original cast. It was an incredibly campy show, lasting only 22 episodes, but I found it fun to watch, even if it was just for a good laugh. Perhaps another shot at it wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
As for Abrams’s sequel, all questions will be answered when it hits theaters on May 17, 2013.