Benedict Cumberbatch talks ‘Star Trek Into Darkness,’ Kirk maturing and pleasing the fans
One of the biggest films of 2013 certainly will be “Star Trek Into Darkness” and few details were even made available before the recent trailer release. Now Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays a villain named John Harrison, a name new to the “Trek” mythos.
During an interview with Empire on Thursday, Cumberbatch was asked and dived right into the plot details surrounding Captain Kirk.
“The boy – sorry, the man – was so tired carrying that film, I’ve got to say. He’s brilliant in it, I’m really excited to see his performance. It’s like he’s the son in the first and the father in the second, almost, don’t you think? Not as an actual father, though, that’s not a storyline at all, but I mean that he’s become a father to his crew.”
One photo released of Cumberbatch trapped in a cell made many fans liken the scene to the Joker in “Dark Knight,” Loki in “The Avengers” or even Silva in “Skyfall” where the villain got caught by design.
“Yep, all three of those films, and I’m quite worried about it – though they are great films, with great villains – but so what if they do? Not all of those bad guys had Enterprise costumes on, and that’s what matters. But it’s very exciting, that scene, that was a great sequence to film.”
The “Sherlock” star is well aware of the challenge to appease the massive and rabid Star Trek fans.
“If you have an over preoccupation with perception and trying to please people’s expectations, then you can go mad. We’ve got J.J. Abrams, and he’s already beautifully cracked that nut in the first film, and I think it pleased a lot of the varying camps: people who were coming to the franchise for the first time, the J.J. Abrams fans and the Star Trek fans, so that was a big comfort to me.
“It’s always a compact between me and the writers and the directors – the people who are hiring me to do the job – and if I’m making them happy, I can trust that it’ll make fans happy as well… You know, ‘Sherlockies’ – as they’re probably known now, after Trekkies – have a long history. Jeremy Brett and Basil Rathbone are huge icons, playing a character that’s been taken on by different people over 70 times – you know, it’s the most played fictional character of all time – so having done two series of that and being reasonably confident we’re doing all right with it, and I’m doing all right with him, I’m not… overly confident about this, but I’m just saying it’s something you don’t let preoccupy yourself.”
Check out the full interview over at Empire Magazine here
The film also stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Alice Eve and Bruce Greenwood.
Star Trek Into Darkness opens on May 17th