Film Divider has a great round-up of new Star Trek 3 rumors which suggest new co-writer Simon Pegg may already be steering the third movie into awesome territory. The part which initially caught our attention was Paramount’s rumored interest in casting Bryan Cranston as a villain.
The major new role for a male actor will be the villain. As we understand it, he’s supposed to be Bryan Cranston-like, to the point that Cranston himself has had words with the studio about taking the role. We don’t know just yet if he said yes, or if this is an all-new character or somebody from continuity, but because they’re shooting for Cranston we at least know the filmmakers want to bring the intensity.
As if that wasn’t awesome enough already, Film Divider also says they’re trying to distance themselves from the “let’s put Alice Eve in her underwear for no apparent reason” kerfuffle and cast three new, fleshed-out female characters.
One of them will be the President of the United Federation of Planets, a character who has never been female in the movies before. There will also be a female captain of another Federation Ship, whom Film Divider says is “being set up as Kirk’s match, which should open up some much-needed new dynamics.” Should be fun to see Kirk getting competitive and blustered while being bested.
The third new female character being rumored also sounds fun. She’s Bones’ (Karl Urban’s) ex-wife. Well, one of his ex-wives anyway. We’re not sure yet how many he has in this continuity.
Now, it’s unclear whether that character is Pamela Branch or Jocelyn Treadaway, or a new character just for the big-screen rebooted universe, but the simple fact she exists at all suggests a shift away from the first two films’ myopic focus on Kirk and Spock. It will be great to see Bones get some time in the spotlight.
Agreed. We’ll take all of the Dr. Grumpy Cat footage they’ll give us.
