‘Star Trek Beyond’ Director Justin Lin Reveals Details on Idris Elba’s Villain

The first trailer for Star Trek Beyond arrived this week, teasing big action, new characters, and a possible return to the franchise’s fun roots. We’ll have to wait until next summer to see what Fast and Furious vet Justin Lin cooked up for the flailing series, but the director isn’t making us wait much longer to hear about Idris Elba’s mysterious new villain character.

His name is Krall. And while that sounds a bit Klingon-ish, Lin and co-writer Simon Pegg have promised that Elba’s character was an entirely new creation — and no, it’s not one of those John Harrison promises. Speaking with Slashfilm, Lin says he worked with the actor on developing something more substantial than a typical Trek villain:

When [Idris] came in, he had a lot of [prospective] projects and when I talked to him about this character, it wasn’t about this or that it was about building or having a philosophy or point of view. And I like his character because his character is really challenging the way of the Federation’s philosophy and there are a lot of things that when I was growing up I wanted to see.

As for Krall’s motivations, Lin had a very interesting perspective on the Enterprise’s mission and how that directly correlates to the new villain:

It was just really embracing the idea that the Federation, what would happen if you were going on a five-year journey and you’re trying to also not only explore, but also maybe introduce other people to this way of thinking. What would that mean? What are the consequences to that? I mean, spreading a philosophy that you believe in that you think is great, are there gonna be any other points of views that’s gonna counter you? And I think that those are the things that I thought of as a kid. And also then as an adult when I watch Star Trek. And I think we got to kind of explore that a little bit.

We’ve so often seen the Enterprise crew landing on distant planets and trying to solve problems or save alien inhabitants, but what happens when they leave? That’s a very intriguing concept, and one we can’t wait to see explored when Star Trek Beyond arrives on July 22, 2016.