Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman talk ‘Star Trek Into Darkness,’ Benedict Cumberbatch as ‘weapon of mass destruction’
Star Trek Into Darkness writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman discussed the film’s new title and connections to the darker theme with Digital Spy in an April 2 article.
Orci is now openling discussing John Harrison, the mysterious villain played by Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch.
“He understands Starfleet because he was enlisted in a similar way,” he told Star Trek Magazine. “Some might see part of the title coming from the fact that he’s kind of a dark shadow of members of our crew.
“He too has gone through the process… that some of our crew have gone though, and clearly for some reason it’s failed to bring him over, so I think he represents that part of our heroes,” Orci added.
Kurtzman has jumped in, adding that Orci and co-writer Damon Lindelof were conscious of the need to retain a sense of hope and optimism in the Star Trek film, despite a dark plot which will see the Enterprise crew fighting Cumberbatch’s “one-man weapon of mass destruction”.
“Despite the fact that we are literally going Into Darkness, I think we all worked very hard to make sure the theme of hope, what hope costs, and what it’s really about, was always alive in how we were designing our story.
“So we’re pretty consistent with the last movie in terms of dark things happening, but holding on to the light that Roddenberry set up as a basic tenet of the Star Trek universe.”
Star Trek Into Darkness arrives in theaters on May 17, 2013.