ParamountThe menacing British voice that gave you chills in the new Star Trek Into Darkness teaser trailer?
We all know it belongs to Benedict Cumberbatch, the Sherlock star who's pulling villain duty in the highly anticipated sequel.
But the identify of his nefarious character, whom the thesp has maddeningly described as "not a clearly good or evil" entity, has remained tightly under wraps. Until now. Sort of.
Paramount released a press photo today that, be it an accident or not, identifies Cumberbatch as "John Harrison"—and you can bet fans are having a field day with that one.
"This strikes us a eerily similar to the news reports claiming that Marion Cotillard would be playing an all-new character named 'Miranda Tate' in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises. And we all know how that turned out, don't we?" writes CraveOnline's William Bibbiani, who's betting that "John Harrison" is not an all-new character to the Star Trek universe.
GeeksofDoom also points out that there was an Enterprise crew member named Harrison who appeared in 14 episodes of the original TV series (don't play trivia with that guy), but that "this could all be a well-orchestrated smoke screen on the part of the studio and director J.J. Abrams, who just loves toying with his audience."
Perhaps all, or at least some, will be revealed when the first nine minutes of Star Trek Into Darkness start playing before IMAX 3-D screenings of The Hobbit, which hits theaters Friday. And May 17, 2013, when the whole movie opens, is really right around the corner.