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‘Star Trek Beyond’ Trailer: Fans Applaud Idris Elba’s Performance, Appearance As Villainous Krall

By Jonathan Franks
Published on: 14:17 PST, May 22, 2016

The Star Trek Beyond trailer was released online this week, and everyone seems to be talking about Idris Elba!

Throughout his career, Idris Elba has proven his versatile abilities as an actor to play an impressive villain on the small screen and big screen alike. Thanks to his role in the Thor franchise, he has a clear track record of playing a convincing non-human character as well.

However, his villainous role as Krall in Star Trek Beyond, the third installment of the rebooted Star Trek movie franchise, takes those abilities to a brand new level. Instead of playing a villain or an alien, he is essentially playing a villainous alien and perhaps one of the most deadly villains to face Captain Kirk and his Enterprise crew face-to-face.

What makes Idris Elba’s Star Trek villain even more special is the fact that he is a brand new character within the Star Trek universe.

The 43-year-old English actor opened up to Entertainment Weekly during an interview last month about Krall and his overall backstory.

“What’s interesting about him is that he has a real beef with what the Enterprise stands for. Krall’s a character who’s deeply steeped in hatred – in my opinion, a well-earned hatred – for the Federation. It felt quite political. There’s a relatability to what’s happening in our world. Not everybody’s happy with what everybody calls the good guys.”

Elba further explained how Krall differs from many of the other Star Trek villains that have captivated the attention of longtime Trekkies and movie critics over the years.

According to Idris, Krall is neither threatening nor good at giving maniacal speeches – he is something that is much worse entirely.

“Krall is predatory. He’s not one for big speeches. He is one for going to get what he wants. If that means having to do it himself, outside of his army, he is not afraid to do that… In terms of Krall and Kirk… can we say, Jaws and Dory?”

Long before you hear him speak a single word in the Star Trek Beyond trailer, Krall’s mere appearance is captivating all by itself. It is nearly impossible to recognize Idris Elba under all of the intense, well-crafted makeup.

Star Trek Beyond features performances from many of the same actors and actresses from the first two installments of the franchise including Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, Simon Pegg, and John Cho. There were a few changes behind the camera, though.

For instance, J.J. Abrams decided to step down as the film’s director so that he could focus on directing Star Wars: The Force Awakens. However, he still remained involved with the film as one of the producers. Justin Lin, a favored director from the Fast & Furious franchise replaced Abrams in the director’s chair for Star Trek Beyond. Another interesting change was that Simon Pegg co-wrote the screenplay in addition to reprising his role as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott.

However, when Star Trek Beyond debuts in theaters on July 22, most eyes (if not all) will definitely be playing close attention to Idris Elba.

[Image Credit: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images]

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