Two highly anticipated first looks at J.J. Abrams’ follow up to his 2009 smash hit reboot of Star Trek have gone viral, a domestic trailer and a Japanese version that contains crucial extra imagery.
As the title assures us (Star Trek Into Darkness), the next outing for the crew of the USS Enterprise appears to be anything but a happy excursion to explore strange new worlds.
Sherlock‘s Benedict Cumberbatch joins the cast as a villain whose identity has yet to be revealed. Rampant speculation has ranged from Khan to the Original Series’ Gary Mitchell. Though with Cumberbatch wearing a Starfleet uniform and seeing what appears to be an older older federation starship (SS Valiant) from the water, plot threads from the Mitchell episode, 1966’s Where No Man Has Gone Before are clearly present. In the other hand, Cumberbatch appears to have Khan’s genetically enhanced strength and intelligence, and said rising federation starship could be a throwback to the USS Reliant.
But really stands out in the Japanese version is the intentional unmistakable imagery of two hands separated between glass, which takes us straight back to the death of Spock scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. So all bets are off which way this film may take us. Though the issue I have mirroring a Wrath of Khan plot in the new rebooted timeline is that the weight of the iconic arc is lost without the setup provided by the Original Series’ Space Seed. That classic episode introduced us to Ricardo Montalban as the villain, and set the stage for the over two decades worth of antagonism between Kirk and Khan that culminated on the big screen in 1982.
Also if the plan includes killing off Spock as well, another nod to Khan, in this timeline Kirk and Spock have not known each other as long as they had in the previous movie time frame. Frankly, the two were antagonists for much of the 2009 reboot. So the death of Quinto’s Spock would by all accounts not have the same weight as the death of Leonard Nimoy’s Spock, with the duo’s friendship here being at its beginning.
But who am I to question Abrams and his screenwriters on any of this? I am confident they had all this logistically mapped out to the tee from the get go.
Japanese Trailer with extra footage:
Announcement Trailer:
Official synopsis:
In Summer 2013, pioneering director J.J. Abrams will deliver an explosive action thriller that takes Star Trek Into Darkness.
When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.
With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.
As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.
A special nine-minute preview will be attached IMAX 3D screenings of The Hobbit stating on December 14.
Star Trek Into Darkness, directed by J.J. Abrams, is set to hit theaters on May 17, 2013, and stars Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Simon Pegg (Scotty), Karl Urban (McCoy), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Anton Yelchin (Chekov), John Cho (Sulu) and Benedict Cumberbatch (as the yet-to-be-named bad guy).
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