Karl Urban is known on the ‘Star Trek 2’ set as a prankster but did he just punk us all? Earlier in the month while on a press junket for his film ‘Dredd,’ Urban seemed to have let slip that Benedict Cumberbatch’s villainous role in ‘Star Trek 2’ was Gary Mitchell. Now it seems as Roberto Orci is working some damage control and has gone on record to say Cuberbatch is NOT who Urban says he is.

Orci has always said that Gary Mitchell would not be in the sequel and when asked about Urban’s faux pas, he responded laughingly, “I would say that I never lie. While Karl tests all those hypo spray props on himself.”

Orci then revealed that director J.J. Abrams is hoping to keep the identity of Cumberbatch’s villain a secret as long as they can hoping to preserve the experience of the movie:

“…our belief that one of the fun things about Star Trek that distinguishes it from other franchises is that the story turns. It isn’t just the spectacle of Star Trek, not just the explosions and the battles, it is the plot. That is why we are so protective of plot and character with this particular franchise. In others that isn’t the case but in this one we can preserve the experience for some people of not knowing exactly until we get there. Will we succeed in keeping it under wraps? Probably not, but we will try it.”

Knowing how hungry Trekkies are for any news about this sequel, Orci did throw a few bones. Unlike Urban’s cute joke that ‘Star Trek 2’ footage would be on YouTube after the end of Comic-Con (which ended up being footage of Urban surfing for 4 minutes with 10 seconds of Abrams wrapping up production for the ‘Star Trek’ sequel), Orci announced that that the first trailer for the film should come out this fall:

“Yeah. Marketing plans, especially for the second time around, get a little more clear. You know you want a certain amount of time for an audience to be aware of what is coming up. So certainly fall at the latest for starting to role this movie out.”

And if that isn’t enough to forgive the prank that Urban pulled, Orci did disclose a little of whom a few actors will be playing in the film. While Noel Clarke, Peter Weller, Joseph Gatt and Nazeen Contractor are all playing new non-canon characters, Alice Eve and Benedict Cumberbatch will be canon! That means Eve and Cumberbatch are playing characters we’ve seen before from the original series!

Although Eve is blonde, and if Orci does keep to his word, then she won’t be playing Janice Rand as she was one of the five characters he mentioned that wouldn’t be in the sequel. And now that Mitchell is off the list of who Cumberbatch could be, does that mean rumors of him as Khan will resume? If so, then Eve could possibly play Carol Marcus, the ex-flame of Captain Kirk who was terrorized by Kahn in ‘Wrath of Khan.’

What do you all think?

Source: Trek Movie