Tis the season to rethink whether or not Khan should’ve been named in advance of Star Trek Into Darkness, apparently; after director J.J. Abrams said that perhaps the decision to keep the character’s identity secret ahead of time was more trouble than it was worth, Khan himself — actor Benedict Cumberbatch — has weighed in on the subject.
Asked by IGN about Abrams’ comments, Cumberbatch pretended to complain about “all the times we had to lie for him,” before saying “It’s logistics, isn’t it? It don’t know if it’s a bad or a good thing, it was his call, I was fine with it. I like the idea [of it].”
STORY: J.J Abrams Rethinks ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ Villain Reveal
He went on, “the intention was to have a reveal in the audience that was going to be thrilling, that people would [gasp and ask] ‘Really?’ And that worked to an extent, because not everybody what they were in for when they went into the theater, and some people wanted to join in that thrill of seeing it and experiencing it in the theater, rather than having it spoiled for them by reviews, or Internet gossip, or trailers that gave everything away. So who knows? For those people, I would say it was a good thing.”
For his part, Cumberbatch said that the audiences he saw the movie with enjoyed it. However, he admitted, “For anyone else that wants to find out [spoilers], there are always ways of finding out, and people have their hunches.”
Watch the video below, if only for Cumberbatch’s initial reaction to Abrams’ commentary:
