J.J. Abrams recently apologized for his overuse of lens flares in Star Trek Into Darkness. Now he’s apologizing via MTV for the way the film was promoted. Specifically for the way they tried to hide who Benedict Cumberbatch was playing as if that could be kept a secret. Or even should be kept a secret, considering the scene where Kahnberbatch says his name didn’t change the course of the movie or surprise anyone. Why hide it? Abrams explains.
“The truth is because it was so important to the studio that we not angle this thing for existing fans. If we said it was Khan, it would feel like you’ve really got to know what Star Trek is about to see this movie. That would have been limiting. I can understand their argument to try to keep that quiet, but I do wonder if it would have seemed a little bit less like an attempt at deception if we had just come out with it.” [MTV via Vulture]
Angry fans definitely wouldn’t have voted Star Trek Into Darkness the worst Trek movie if it had been presented as Star Trek Into Darkness: Khan Noonien Singh is super British now. No, like cartoonishly British. Imagine if a human being were actually named “Benedict Cumberbatch”. That’s how British we mean. That’s the full title. I’ve put a lot of thought into this.
(Banner image elements courtesy of Paramount.)