The crew of the USS Enterprise from “Star Trek” (2009), includes, from left, Chris Pine, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, John Cho and Zoe Saldana. (Paramount Pictures)
The slow unveiling of next summer’s “Star Trek Into Darkness” has begun in earnest, first with the official plot synopsis released last week and now with the first poster, which seems to be taking a few tips from “The Dark Knight Rises.”
This year’s conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s trilogy began its marketing push with a poster showing the Batman symbol formed from a crumbling urban cityscape, and now J.J. Abrams’ “Trek” sequel appears to be in keeping with that approach.
The first poster for “The Dark Knight Rises.” (Warner Bros.)
Forget about seeing the USS Enterprise, Kirk, Spock or any of the beloved crew. This first poster promises death and destruction in the form of the film’s villain, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, seen from behind wearing a long trench coat.
Who is he? While no one has confirmed anything officially, the initial guess was that he would be playing Khan Noonien Singh, the villain most people know from “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” However, more recent speculation has centered around Cumberbatch being Gary Mitchell, a powerful villain with psionic powers played by Gary Lockwood in the original series episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”
In the episode, which was the second pilot filmed for the series and the first to feature William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, Mitchell plays a Starfleet lieutenant commander who gains godlike powers and becomes a threat to those around him.
The official synopsis for “Into Darkness” says, “Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.”
More will be revealed in the coming weeks as nine minutes of the film will play before Imax 3D screenings of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” when it opens on Dec. 14. Non-Imax screenings of “The Hobbit” will get the official “Into Darkness” trailer.
The film, which was written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof, also stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, John Cho and Simon Pegg. It is scheduled to open May 17.
Below is the official first poster.
“Star Trek Into Darkness.” (Paramount Pictures)
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TREK INTO AWESOMENESS! RIGHT? RIGHT??
He's gorgeous. Closer shots of him for the next poster please
looks kewl.
I thought this had a DKR look to it as soon as I saw it. But it's a gorgeous poster featuring an even more gorgeous man. I hope they release another one with close ups of the rest of the cast soon.
A gorgeous man? How can you tell? The character in the poster has his back to us with a cape covering most of his body that fills about 2% of the frame. I just hope the movie is more original than the poster.
Anyone notice that the skyline is actually London, England (sort-of, apart from the fact that the Themes has been straightened out and some new buildings added).
Similarity of movie posters is nothing new. Love the STID poster, but not sure why this is newsworthy.
Not news worthy? This is a site devoted to all things fanboy–comics, movies, etc–so how is ANYTHING here truly "newsworthy" beyond that scope. But within that scope; a multi-million dollar, big studio tent-pole feature that directly rips off a very recent, rival studio's poster concept seems worthy enough to warrant an article. But you don't?
Bring back Geoff Boucher.
Amen.
Gary Mitchell has to be the villain it makes perfect sence! Also majorly raises the stakes for Kirk who will do anything to stop his old friend from destroying The Federation! I just have winder since this new timeline how things would be different in the future. I mean, no Vulcan! Maybe Voyagers Tuvaks parents were killed! Just as a start! Plus Vulcan is one of the Federations most important planets!
With such a deep talent pool to fish from, they need to rip off a poster concept that was JUST used for another franchise? I'm a little embarrassed for my old employer.