CONFIRMED: And the Star Trek 2 Villain Is...

This post contains spoilers for Star Trek 2.

But really deep in our hearts, we already knew this. The details have been few and far between. We learned months ago that Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch would be appearing in J. J. Abrams' 2013 Star Trek sequel. The rumor mill began to churn out stories that he would be playing Khan Noonien Singh, first played by Ricardo Montalbon in the TOS episode "The Space Seed" and again in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, which both featured the original cast. Then, we heard that instead of Khan, Cumberbatch would be portraying Sybok, Spock's brother. However, confirmation has come that Benedict Cumberbatch will indeed be playing Khan and will be Star Trek 2's villain.

Of course, the set photographs that were reported on weeks ago did allude to the fact that Cumberbatch's character would be no friend of the Enterprise crew. In fact, the pictures featured Cumberbatch grappling with Zachary Quinto's Spock. We reported in the last few days that Leonard Nimoy himself had let his it slip about his appearance in the film. This news has been confirmed and Nimoy will indeed be reprising his role as Spock Prime. Klingons will also be in the film!

So, here we have it. Suspicions confirmed: Benedict Cumberbatch is Khan. Honestly, I cannot think of another actor for that role, and that is not just by bias toward Benedict Cumberbatch talking.

Did you see this coming?  Who would you have cast in the role of Khan?

This article was originally published on Word of the Nerd Online on May 1, 2012.