The week of “the most news you’ve ever read about Benicio Del Toro” appears to be coming to an end. On Friday, Latino Review posted a scoop that Del Toro would be playing Kahn Noonien Singh in J.J. Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ sequel — a part made famous by Ricardo Montalban during an episode of the original series and in ‘Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.’ On Saturday, Abrams’ told Hitfix that this was “not true.” Well, stop the Internet presses: according to Vulture, it appears that Del Toro will not be in the ‘Star Trek’ sequel as Khan or as any other character.
What’s interesting about this is that, now, both Latino Review and Hitfix could be correct. Vulture is also reporting that Khan will be the villain in the upcoming sequel, so, before Del Toro bowed out, that may just have been a valid scoop. On the other side of this, by the time Hitfix caught up with Abrams to confirm, Del Toro was already off the project. So by Abrams simply saying that it’s, “not true,” that Del Toro would be playing Kahn, he wasn’t lying. He just didn’t elaborate, “Yeah, Khan’s totally in the movie, it’s just that Del Toro won’t be in the movie.”
Which leaves poor Del Toro, alone, looking at that photo of he and J.J. Abrams, arm and arm, tacked on the refrigerator. If I listen carefully, I can almost hear Del Toro spitefully mumbling, “From hell’s heart, I stab at thee. For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee.”