Benicio Del Toro May Kick Kirk & Spock's Asses in Star Trek 2

On paper, Star Trek had a great villain in Nero. He served as the driving force for Kirk and Spock on their individual character-journeys as well as leading them to their destined bromance. Alas somewhere amidst all those rewrites and reshoots, the Romulan heavy lost some of his umph, by no means the fault of Eric Bana, the Aussie thespian buried under that makeup reduced to huffing and yelling "SPOOOOCK!"

Following in the same direction as Bana, helmer J.J. Abrams has his head set for another dominant character-actor for the baddie position on the as-yet-titled Star Trek sequel. Variety reports Abrams wants Benicio del Toro for the role which in typical "Mystery Box" fashion is kept so under wraps not even the Oscar winner himself (He's already chatted with Abrams on participating but has yet to be formally offered) knows just who'd be played.

Writers/producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman vehemently stated against the use of Khan (Thank God) in the past and I'll take their word they're not bullshitting us. That's too expected and lazy this soon into all that goodwill they earned from the May 2009 reboot. Once we get into Star Trek 3 and 4, Abrams is long gone and K&O are involved in a strictly "Story By" credit/"I don't give a fuck anymore" fashion, then we'll see Khan.