Deadline has another in a long line of remarkable exclusives. The villain for J.J Abrams’ Star Trek sequel, which been attached to a handful of actors most notably Benicio Del Toro, has finally been cast: BBC’s Sherlock Holmes star Benedict Cumberbatch.
Cumberbatch has most recently been seen in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy opposite Gary Oldman in a supporting role and in War Horse but is most famous so far for being the BBC’s latest incarnation of uber-sleuth Sherlock Holmes opposite Martin Freeman as his partner Watson in Sherlock. He’s also going to be voicing the “Necromancer” in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films as well.
What does this mean? Losing Del Toro was big, based on his name and talent level alone, but Cumberbatch is a really good actor in his own right. He’s just better known to British audiences so far and is quite a different Sherlock Holmes than Robert Downey Jr. provided in Guy Ritchie’s film series.
What do you think? Do you like the pick? Or is there someone else you’d have preferred to see as Chris Pine’s antagonist? Sound off below.
