As work on J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Trek sequel continues, and he refuses to tell anyone, including his own actors, what the movie is even about, casting directors are still being forced to try and find new actors to enter this clandestine web of Klingons and probably Khan and whatever else that Abrams is cooking up.
One of the big "gets" that had been "all but signed" for a few weeks now was Benicio Del Toro, who had been singled out to play the villain in the movie who may or may not have been named Khan. Now, it appears that things were not quite so solid after all, with reports coming that talks with Del Toro have completely broken down. This means that Abrams will have to find another thickly accented actor to fill Ricardo Montalban's iconic chest piece. Because it's totally going to be Khan, okay?
While Del Toro's exit is a bummer, one good piece of casting news did float up from the ether around the same time. Namely, that former robotic cop, 8th Dimension defender, and turtleneck enthusiast Peter Weller will be joining the cast. Of course, it's for an unnamed role that I'm sure Abrams didn't tell him a lick about, but hey, it's not like Peter Weller was so busy as to say no to a major sci-fi blockbuster franchise. Hell, he might be playing the Enterprise's kindly old janitor, who has to clean all the space toilets, and that'd still be a heck of a paycheck.
It's worth noting that this is not Peter Weller's first Star Trek appearance. He made an extended guest appearance on a two-part episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, where he played a Xenophobic terrorist bent on removing aliens from Earth. Because space racism.
