"Star Trek Into Darkness" seemed to put an end to the story of Khan, played in the film by actor Benedict Cumberbatch.
At the end of the film, Khan had been defeated in battle, and although his starship crew had survived (his ultimate goal for the film) he was put in stasis for presumably an infinite amount of time, to act as both a punishment for his crimes and to keep his super-powered form from causing any more harm to the galaxy.
"Star Trek 3" is underway, with Paramount recently confirming a 2016 release date. And while we may not know anything about the storyline yet, Roberto Orci does. The film's co-writer, and an extremely likely candidate for its director, Orci spoke with IGN about future story ideas for the third "Star Trek" film.
First, Orci mentioned potentially adding elements from other "Star Trek" series, like "The Next Generation:" "I think our instinct right now is to go into more uncharted territory. But again, we're still in the middle of writing it."
However, Orci also mentioned to The Hollywood Reporter that the third "Star Trek" film would hew as closely to the original 1966 series as possible, so take his words to IGN with a grain of salt.
And after a little prodding from IGN, Orci started to venture closer to the status of Khan.
"I think what our discussions are about finding a thing we can discover for ourselves. Then if it turns out that something from canon somehow fits that bill, or it somehow turns out that we've reinvented the wheel without even knowing it, like, 'Oh! We went through all this trouble to create a situation, and it turns out it's the exact situation that happened in whatever episode.' But first we don't attach any names to the structure. We don't want anyone to feel like they have to have seen the previous movies. It has to be a movie that stands on its own, that stands alone. So we're hesitant to rely on any love of the series or love of previous stuff."
Then, finally, he said it outright. When asked if he felt complete with Khan's storyline, Orci replied: "Do I feel complete?" After a long pause, Orci finished his statement with "I can't answer that."
Because Orci is still keeping "Star Trek" details as closely under wraps as possible, it's not clear if he's just being coy or if there may be a little bit of Khan in the third film. Only time will tell.
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