Ronnie: 'Star Trek 2' Has Benedict Cumberbatch 'Over The Moon'

Friday, January 6, 2012

'Star Trek 2' Has Benedict Cumberbatch 'Over The Moon'

'I'm hugely, hugely excited,' actor says of his villainous role in the sequel.
By Kara Warner

Benedict Cumberbatch
Photo: Getty Images/ MTV News/ Paramount TV

With the Internets still atwitter over Benedict Cumberbatch's casting in the "Star Trek" sequel, the man himself gushed about the news at a press event Thursday (January 5).

The "War Horse" and "Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy" star addressed reporters via satellite during the Television Critics Association press tour for his hit TV show "Sherlock." When asked about the casting news, who he'll play and how he feels about being chosen for the role, Cumberbatch was expectedly vague.

"There's a lawyer standing here saying that I can't say anything," he joked. "I'm hugely, hugely excited and I'm very, very flattered. I'm very, very excited, but obviously I'm not here to talk about that. I will, in the future, I'm sure. I'm just getting my head around the fact that it's happened. If you'll forgive me, I'll pass on that. But my headline is that I'm over the moon."

Cumberbatch will take on an unknown villainous role in the sequel, for which director J.J. Abrams reportedly pursued Benicio Del Toro and later Édgar Ramirez. Although Abrams has refused to comment on exactly what villain will be in "Trek 2," plenty of speculators remain convinced that the British actor will portray the genetically engineered superhuman Khan, originally played and made famous by Ricardo Montalbán in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan."

In addition to his role in the highly anticipated sequel, look out for plenty more Cumberbatch this year and next, via his two key roles in Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit," doing the voice and motion capture for Smaug and likely both for the Necromancer.

"It's very flattering," Cumberbatch said at the TCA event of his recent rise to stardom and public recognition. "It's very important to remember that whatever scale you're working at, or your work is being received, or approved of, it is a job. You have to do your job well, so you can't get carried away by too much of it."

Check out everything we've got on "Star Trek 2."

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