7 Things We Want To See From Star Trek 4

Another Original Villain

The modern Star Trek movies have taken an interesting approach to adapting the mythology of the original canon. 2009’s Star Trek wisely told an original story that reworked the timeline. Even though the villain of the piece was a Romulan, Eric Bana’s Nero was an original creation. Likewise, Beyond introduced Idris Elba’s Krall, a mysterious alien tyrant who was revealed to be – spoilers! – a mutated former Starfleet captain who had become disillusioned with the ways of the Federation.

In Star Trek Into Darkness, however, the decision was made to effectively remake the most beloved Trek movie of them all, The Wrath of Khan, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of the superhuman antagonist. Though the British thespian was as good as ever, the inclusion of the character was handled poorly – remember them trying to fool us into thinking he wasn’t playing Khan? – and generally it just upset fans that the franchise was redoing iconic elements from its past rather than trying something new.

Clearly, that approach didn’t work and the best course for Star Trek 4 would be to include another fresh villain. What worked best about Khan and Krall was that they both reflected the real-life political landscape and had something to say about modern society. Trek always had a great brain on its shoulders and we’d like to see more of this in the next entry in the series.