Why 'Star Trek: Into Darkness' Won't Feature Khan...

Or it won't feature the one we except. I'll admit up front, I don't think the villain will be Khan and I'll explain that reasoning later, but it's entirely possible that a very different type of character may be the villain, but will be given the name Khan. What I don't expect is an almost identical version of Khan to appear in this movie. I think that's what a lot of the internet is expecting.

LET'S LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE

First, Khan is the best known single Star Trek universe villain. People who don't really know Star Trek, will probably be able to name Khan. They might know a race of people, like The Borg, but when it comes to Lex Luthor-type characters, Khan is the guy. And he's so famous because of the second Star Trek movie The Wrath of Khan. Now with the release of this series second film, people expect it to be Khan.

When the official synopsis was released, some pointed to the villain being described as: "one man weapon of mass destruction." This does kind of describe Khan. Khan was a genetically engineered human who awake in the future and wanted to take over the ship and then the galaxy. He was incredibly strong, incredibly smart, so he could be a one man weapon.

Now that the teaser is released, there are those point to this picture. Seeing the ribbing on the collar of his coat? It's kind of like the costume of Khan in The Wrath of Khan. 

There are some other rumors being thrown around, but these are the arguments I see come up most besides the name just being "tossed around."

COUNTER-POINT

The fact that Khan was in the second movie in the first series, doesn't give much support he'd appear in this one. That's like when people said the villain in The Dark Knight would be Penguin and Catwoman. It was largely based on their appearance in Batman Returns. It was also based on how well known they are. But popularity doesn't necessarily equal proof either.

There's the plot description, but based on the fighting in the teaser, this villain is far stronger than Khan. Plus, Khan had a lot of help in the movie. This villain seems to be completely by himself. The synopsis also says: "After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction." My expectation from this description is that it will be a lot closer to Apocalypse Now and the hunt for Colonel Kurtz than anything else. The villain, whoever he is, is a crazed member of Starfleet with some kind of vendetta against them. For the record, I'd like to remind everyone Khan was not a member of Starfleet.

See the Starfleet emblem on his shirt? 

Ship crashing in a city? Based on everything in the teaser showing a futuristic city, I'm guessing the villain takes the fight to Starfleet. The movie's title in Russia is Star Trek: Vengeance. In Wrath of Khan, Khan was looking for vengeance on Kirk, not Starfleet. If he takes the fight to Starfleet - presumably because they send Kirk after him - his out for vengeance on them.

CONCLUSION

From everything I've read - which I'll admit is a small portion compared to what's out there - people are expecting a Khan similar to what we saw in Wrath of Khan. I don't think we'll be seeing that. Based on what I've seen, but also because that would be too obvious. This is J.J. Abrams we're talking about. And guys that worked on Fringe, Alias, and Lost. To simply rehash an old, expected character seems below their talents. Using Khan so soon in a reboot is too on-the-nose for them. If they use Khan in a way very similar to the first incarnation, I'd be very disappointed in them.

...AND THEN THERE's THIS...

This was in the extra 15 seconds in the Japanese Teaser. For anyone who's seen Wrath of Khan, this is pretty emotional. This is from the final moments. Spoilers. Spoilers. When after saving the ship, Spock succumbs to radiation poisoning and dies. He has this wonderful moment with Kirk where they touch hands through the glass before Spock dies. But this happens in Khan, so it's inclusion leads everyone to think something similar may happen in Darkness, or that Khan is at least the villain. I'm thinking this scene is included to make everyone expect Khan and talk about the movie more. I'm sure Spock won't die because that would be bad for the franchise. They would either lose one of the two most notable characters, or they would then have to go through a movie to explain how he comes back to life a la Search for Spock. And then it's two movies that are too similar to the original series. And I have no idea who could play Christopher Lloyd as a Klingon.

So, maybe the villain will be named Khan, but it won't be what we expect. I don't think he'll be named Khan, but somewhere a studio exec might have made a bad call. For whatever reason, people seem to be expecting Khan. Abrams and the gang know this and I think they're just playing with us to get us to write things like I just did. Dammit!