Star Trek 2 casting news is heating up as the film gets closer to its start date, and this time around it’s the good news/bad news routine.
The good news is Peter Weller has come aboard, the bad news is Benicio Del Toro’s taking a pass on a villain role that’s still unknown, although the Net’s still speculating like crazy it could be the resurrection of Khan, even though JJ Abrams denies he’s coming back. (At least one site that reported Del Toro’s turn down even ran a photo of Khan from Trek 2).
As Slashfilm reports, in Hollywood speak “talks broke down” last week, and Vulture claims talks fell apart over what Cinemablend termed “monetary issues.”
And more grist for the Khan rumor mill, Vulture has cited “a highly placed source” that the villain is indeed Khan, and making the comparison of the upcoming Superman reboot, Man of Steel, where Zack Snyder “tried to downplay” rumors General Zod would be the bad guy.
Always remember, rumors can get really out of hand in the age of the Internet before anyone realizes there’s no truth to them, so for the moment I’ll take all this with a grain of salt. (You might want to do the same.)
Collider also put it well when they reported, “At this point, the production is turning into the world’s biggest game of telephone.”
Although Del Toro said no, there should be plenty of actors in Hollywood who will be more than willing to fill the role. Trekkie or not, this is one of the most anticipated sequels in recent memory, and who wouldn’t be impressed seeing you have a Trek villain credit on your IMDB page?
