Idris Elba’s Star Trek villain will be “groundbreaking” for the franchise

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The Star Trek franchise has given us plenty of classic villains over the past fifty years, but according to the actor himself, Idris Elba's character in the upcoming STAR TREK BEYOND will be "groundbreaking" for the franchise. STAR TREK BEYOND recently wrapped up production in Vancouver and will be heading to Dubai to finish off the film, but Elba took some time to speak with MTV and dropped some tidbits about his character.

I think ’Star Trek’ has prided themselves as being quite classic when it comes to villains, like ’he’s a guy who wants to end the world,’ there’s no doubt about that. But in this version of the film, there’s a slightly different twist to that, it’s quite an interesting journey, which I think is groundbreaking for the franchise. But, it still keeps with the ’classic bad guy is a classic bad guy’ tone.

There's been quite a lot of secrecy surrounding the plot of STAR TREK BEYOND (naturally), but we do know that Idris Elba won't be playing a Klingon as had been previously rumoured, but a completely original character. Idris added that "you've never seen me play a character like this" as Simon Pegg and the team "have written a very interesting, complex journey for my character." I love Star Trek and I love Idris Elba, so I've got my fingers crossed that his character lives up to expectations and STAR TREK BEYOND will be a better Star Trek film than STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS; at the very least, it sounds like Elba has been working hard:

It’s been hard work, I’ve been doing 18-hour days. It’s tough work, but I’m looking forward to people seeing this film.

STAR TREK BEYOND will premiere on July 22, 2016, which is two weeks after its original release date.