In the run up to the release of Star Trek Into Darkness, director J.J. Abrams and everyone else involved with the film went to painstaking lengths to keep the identity of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Khan Noonien Singh a secret – which would have been fine, had everyone not guessed the villain from the moment that the film was announced.
Speaking to Variety to discuss his TV show The Leftovers, Into Darkness screenwriter Damon Lindelof has discussed the secrecy surrounding Khan, and admitted that their outright refusal to confirm the speculation was a mistake.
“When we did Star Trek Into Darkness for example, we decided that we weren’t going to tell people that Benedict Cumberbatch was playing Khan,” states Lindelof. “And that was a mistake, because the audience was like, ‘We know he’s playing Khan.’ That was why it was a mistake. But J.J. [Abrams] is telling us nothing about the new Star Wars movie and we love it. I’ve not come across a single person who’s like, ‘I wish I knew a little bit more.’ We are like, ‘Thank God he’s protecting us from all the things that will be revealed in the movie theater.’”
Recently, Abrams also spoke about the flaws in Star Trek Into Darkness, stating that: “We got in trouble on the second Star Trek film with some of the fans. There were too many nods to The Wrath of Khan. I’ll cop to that.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=J52a8SRS5cE
Originally published December 4, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
