We debunk one of them, but we can't entirely dismiss the other. Meanwhile, Marvel's visual effects head drops hints for Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: The Dark World. Plus one last Walking Dead teaser before this Sunday's big return!
Spoilers from here on out!
Top image from X-Men: First Class.
Star Trek Into Darkness
Yesterday brought the latest flurry of rumors that Benedict Cumberbatch had been confirmed as playing Khan, not his supposed character of John Harrison. The source for this, however, is exceedingly random — basically, the next issue of Entertainment Weekly features a detailed preview, and one magazine cover features stars Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, while the other features Pine and Cumberbatch. If you go to EW's Back Issues Store — which presumably somebody did to discover this in the first place, for reasons that boggle the mind — the Pine and Quinto issue was labed "VOYAGE INTO STAR TREK KIRK & SPOCK", while the Pine and Cumberbatch issue was labeled "VOYAGE INTO STAR TREK KIRK & KHAN." Although that last word would seemingly give away the sequel's most closely guarded secret, both labels have since been updated to the far more grammatical "VOYAGE INTO STAR TREK WITH KIRK AND SPOCK", suggesting the previous labels weren't actual titles but instead quick ways to distinguish between the two covers, with the "Khan" caption likely put in by a random employee working from vague internet rumors, as opposed to someone privy to secret information. Because seriously, even if you wanted to reveal the movie's biggest spoiler, why on earth would you do it in the EW Back Issues Store?
The whole thing is rendered particularly moot by the actual article EW.com posted to preview its latest issue, in which it's made quite clear that no Khan-related revelations are forthcoming:
In this week's EW we give you an exclusive first look at the space age sequel that has geekdom waiting with bated breath. Star Trek Into Darkness, due May 17, has sparked feverish online speculation since the day it was announced — most of it about whether or not the film's resident baddie, John Harrison, played by Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch, is actually the infamous super villain Khan.
Unsurprisingly, the ever secretive Abrams wouldn't answer that question — star Chris Pine calls his director a "benevolent dictator" when it comes to spoiling plot lines — but the cast did spill some details about what we can expect from Darkness: namely, a lot more action.
So then, I think we can all stand down and return to our normal business, at least until the next time some random person on the web accidentally mislabels a photo, at which point we can resume speculating wildly. And hell, John Harrison might well be the alter ego for Khan — this just isn't remotely definitive proof of that. [EW]
The Amazing Spider-Man
Director Marc Webb recently sent out another cryptic, quite possibly meaningless production tweet: