Idris Elba reveals details of his Star Trek Beyond character
The Luther actor also admits his favourite Star Trek character is Clark Kent (!)
Star Trek Beyond, the next instalment in the 50-year-old sci-fi show, is due in cinemas in July, but it might as well be using a cloaking device for the amount of information we have on it.
Idris Elba plays the villain! And he’s not a CGI tiger this time! Why aren’t we drowning in pictures of him draped over the captain’s chair on the USS Enterprise? How is it possible we’ve only had one terrible trailer?
Anyway, someone’s finally put some dilithium in the hype-machine warp core, and Elba has been discussing his role with Entertainment Weekly. His villain is called Krall and he's “predatory”.
"He's not one for big speeches," he says. "He is one for going to get what he wants. If that means having to do it himself, outside of his army, he is not afraid to do that."
As for Krall's relationship with Chris Pine's Captain Kirk, Elba describes it as "Jaws and Dory".
More like this
Krall is from a new species, and is definitely not a Gorn, so until we hear otherwise we’re going to assume he’s a militant follower of Canadian Jazz pianist Diana Krall.
We do know the character has "a real beef with what the Enterprise stands for. Krall's a character who's deeply steeped in hatred – in my opinion, a well earned hatred – for the Federation," explains Elba. "It felt quite political. There's a relatability to what's happening in our world. Not everybody's happy with what everybody calls the good guys."
Star Trek fans might as well read the full interview. There isn’t much else to do at the moment, and it has this brilliant exchange.
Did you have a favourite Star Trek character growing up?
Honestly, my favourite character from the TV show was Clark Kent. Clark Kent? [laughs] Sorry, different show!
