Confirmed! The Next Star Trek Villain Will Be...

Actor confirms his role in the next film in the venerable sci-fi series

By Erik Pedersen, Drusilla Moorhouse Jan 05, 2012 10:45 PMTags
Star Trek, CastIndustrial Light and Magic / Paramount Pictures

Who's going to join the super-sexy cast of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek sequel?

It's elementary, as the cast newbie confirmed today...

Stuart Wilson/Getty Images

It's Benedict Cumberbatch, the delightfully named actor currently starring in BBC's Sherlock series, which airs in the States as part of PBS' Masterpiece. The actor confirmed that he'd been cast while speaking to TV writers at the TCAs in Pasadena, Calif.

In response to a reporter's question about Abrams "anointing him" for the Star Trek 2 role, Cumberbatch said.

"I'm hugely excited and very very flattered. I'm just getting my head round the fact that it's happening. I'm over the moon."

He added that he was "jumping around" after "confirming I'd been given the part."

Cumberbatch, who got the role after early rumors suggested Benicio Del Toro was up for it, has plenty to jump up and down about. As well as his updated Sherlock Holmes role, the actor is appearing onscreen in Steven Spielberg's War Horse and the latest adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Cumberbatch has also been tapped by Peter Jackson to voice the role of the dragon Smaug in the Hobbit films, which star Martin Freeman, who plays Watson in the Holmes reboot.