In the spring, we learned that Idris Elba had joined the cast of the next "Star Trek" movie (the 3rd one), playing a villain, although details on who this villain is have been kept tightly underwraps, so we still don’t know much about the character.
"Star Trek" universe experts speculated, based on the history of the franchise, that he may be a Klingon, meaning he’ll be underneath lots of makeup and prosthetics. Although co-writer and co-star of the movie, Simon Pegg, confirmed himself that Elba would not be playing a Klingon.
Also in a September interview with MTV, Elba, while doing press for “Beasts of No Nation”, shared the following about his role in "Star Trek Beyond" (as the new film is titled): “Simon [Pegg] and the team have written a very interesting, complex journey for my character… You’ve never seen me play a character like this.”
The actor added: “I think ’Star Trek’ has prided themselves as being quite classic when it comes to villains, like ’he’s a guy who wants to end the world,’ there’s no doubt about that. But in this version of the film, there’s a slightly different twist to that… It’s quite an interesting journey, which I think is groundbreaking for the franchise. But, it still keeps with the ’classic bad guy is a classic bad guy’ tone.”
And he ended with: “It’s been hard work. I’ve been doing 18-hour days. It’s tough work, but I’m looking forward to people seeing this film.”
So, with words like "interesting," "complex," "groundbreaking," "you’ve never seen me play a character like this," and "classic bad guy" who wants to "end the world," as well as what he says about putting in 18-hour days of "tough work," it all sounds like this is quite a character he’s playing in the movie, doesn’t it? But we have a little while to wait until we find out with certainty, since the movie isn’t set for release until July 2016.
Previously, when asked about Elba’s involvement, Pegg said he was writing what will be an original character, not from the existing "Star Trek" universe that we’re all already familiar with – so it’s no one even "Star Trek" experts will know: "Idris is an extraordinary actor and we’re trying to write him a kick-ass role,” Pegg added.
I think we get a glimpse of this "kick-ass role" in the below first full trailer for the film which debuted this morning. And yes, Elba is playing an alien of some kind – at least, I’m guessing that the character is him, based solely on the voice we hear that’s aligned with the shot of the character, which sounds an awful lot like Elba… to me anyway. I won’t tell you where this pops up in the trailer; just watch it for yourselves and decide.
Of course Zoe Saldana is back, along with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, and Anton Yelchin, all reprising their respective roles.
Justin Lin is directing this 3rd film, with J.J. Abrams producing.
2016 is shaping up to be one of the heaviest blockbuster-heavy movie years in recent history, I think. All the superhero franchise: "Batman vs Superman," "Captain America: Civil War," X-Men: Apocalypse," "Suicide Squad," "Star Trek Beyond," "Independence Day: Resurgence," "Ghostbusters," the next Jason Bourne movie which Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass are back for, and more. The first half of the year will be fanboy/fangirl utopia.
Trailer:
