‘Star Trek Beyond’ Director Justin Lin Reveals More Details about New Villain Krall, Insists Film will be Different from Predecessors

‘Star Trek Beyond’ is set to feature its newest villain to be portrayed by Golden Globe-nominee Idris Elba. Director Justin Lin talked more about the alien Krall and insisted that his film will be different from its predecessors.

According to IGN, the latest installment in the popular ‘Star Trek’ cinematic franchise finally shaped up its line of character posters featuring Chris Pine’s Captain James T. Kirk, Zoe Saldana’s Lt. Nyota Uhura, John Cho’s Lt. Hikaru Sulu, Karl Urban’s Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy, and Zachary Quinto’s Commander Spock.

Elba’s newest main antagonist, the alien Krall, also got his own menacing character poster.

During an interview with Collider, Lin revealed that Krall would play a key role in the film. He said, “It definitely is not a character you’ve seen before. For me it was important because this film would not exist without this character. And I feel like it was important when I had that first meeting, and once I decided what journey this film should take, it really was hinged off, again, this antagonist’s philosophy. And so, that’s one of the things, and also getting one of Idris’s caliber and talent has been amazing.”

Lin admitted that having a powerful central antagonist was important and went on to detail how he wanted Elba’s character to come into fruition. He said that he wanted Krall to have specific philosophies that would challenge that of the Federation’s and he intended for Elba to understand that.

The 44-year old Taiwanese-American film director also explained that his upcoming film will be unique from its predecessors. Although he expressed his admiration and gratitude to J.J. Abrams, he intended to touch on other aspects of the ‘Star Trek’ franchise such as relationships as well as “deconstructing” what made the Federation and Starfleet special.

He added that ‘Star Trek Beyond’ would also be unique stylistically. He said, “You know, trust my gut in what I think, you know, why I love Star Trek. So by doing that, a lot of it was just about, tonally…And it is very different than the other two. But it reflects kind of my chapter or my turn as a gatekeeper for this one.”

This may prove to be a challenging yet overly satisfying feat for Lin since J.J. Abrams’ ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ was received with generally positive reviews as well as proved itself as a box office success. Abrams’ installment became the highest-grossing film the franchise since its release on May 16, 2013 with a total $467.4 in worldwide earnings against a $190 million production budget, according to Box Office Mojo.

‘Star Trek Beyond’ is an upcoming science-fiction film intended as the 13th film in the ‘Star Trek’ franchise. It is scheduled to be released on July 22, 2016.