The Werefrog just hope the new Kirk doesn't scream out the word "Kahn!!!!!" more than once in the movie, and even that might be a bit much.

Kirk (the real one) did it in such a way that no others should even try it.

I'm inclined to agree. These days it is a lot safer to make the bad guy a white British guy with a posh accent and a sneer than risk offending any non-white ethnic group because you made the only Indian in the movie a villain.

Despite the fact that you finally gave the black chick a first name.

Officially. Unofficially she was Nyota in the comics since (I think) the early '80s DC Comics years.

Too little, too late. From a science-fiction writer and blogger of Indian decent: An Open Letter to JJ Abrams: If There's a Khan, He Should Be Indian.

The issue that arises, then, is that the only time you see PoC in mass-market vehicles is in their 'safe' roles--generally supporting cast, with little real impact, beyond that of how they impact the main characters.

The trick is to not make them stereotypically evil for that ethnicity. For instance, in the original Iron Man comics, one of his big villains was the Mandarin--a Fu Manchu pastiche with alien technology bound up in a set of ten rings. In the first Iron Man ~movie~, the villain was identified as part of a pan-Asian terrorist group known as the Ten Ring Society or somesuch, and wearing a very distinctive ring. I was surprised when they dropped that concept in IM 2 for their Russian baddie, but now I think it might've been for the best. Bringing back the Mandarin, cool as it would be for the continuity fans, would've been insulting to pretty much anyone of Asian descent.

Khan, though, is NOT what you'd expect of a 'stereotypical' Indian. For instance, he's not Muslim or Hindu, religions that are easy to portray as alien and dangerous. He wasn't a Kali-worshipper (I'm lookin' at you, Temple of Doom). He was a type of villain we usually ONLY see as white guys. That would show actual daring and willingness to treat people of color as people first--villains and heroes alike.

Wait... it's not Khan now? From The Telegraph:



Maybe Pegg is lying but as a fellow nerd he doesn't seem the type. If Cumberbatch isn't Khan, I'm curious as to who he could be. Commence with fact-less speculation!

Khan w/ brainslug.

My hope is that he is someone completely new.

Why make a new continuity just to follow the old one?

He could be Noonian Sung the doctor that created eugenics clones but also developed Data when he discovered it was a bad idea.

He's going to play a Tribble.