For all his gruffness and intensity, we’re more used to thinking of Idris Elba as conflicted heroes or the morally right leading man. So the occasional chance to see him play a rogue is always welcome, and the idea of him going toe-to-toe with Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk and the rest of the USS Enterprise crew sounds like a lot of fun. Good news, then, that Elba is in early talks to appear in **Star Trek 3.
According to Variety, it’s nowhere near a done deal yet, so for now this has to float among the flickering stars of rumour space. But if he does sign a contract, he’ll be in place to play the big bad in the latest cinematic outing of J.J. Abrams’ rebooted Trek timeline.
Abrams, of course, is a little busy delivering the latest instalment of another vaguely famous space adventure, so **Fast & Furious **veteran Justin Lin will be directing Kirk and co as they take on their latest challenge. After a false directing start and the script changing hands (the current draft is by Simon “Scotty” Pegg and Doug Jung), the cameras should be back on the bridge in June ready for a 2016 release just in time for Star Trek’s 50th broadcast anniversary.
Pegg and Pine are back alongside Zachary Quinto’s Spock, Zoe Saldana’s Uhura, Karl Urban’s Dr. McCoy, John Cho’s Sulu and Anton Yelchin’s Chekov. Elba is a busy man right now – he’s just signed on to appear in Harmony Korine’s new revenge thriller** The Trap and has worked on Beasts Of No Nation, A Hundred Streets, Bastille Day and Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book, among other projects. He’s on screens now in The Gunman and will be back as Heimdall in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, out here on April 23.