Benedict Cumberbatch is coming to a screen near you

Brian Truitt, USA TODAY | USATODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Clip: Kirk vs. Harrison in 'Star Trek' James Kirk (Chris Pine) and John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) square off in a scene from "Star Trek Into Darkness."

The British actor stars in %27Star Trek Into Darkness%2C%27 opening May 17

This year%2C he%27ll also be seen in %27August%3A Osage County%2C%27 %27The Fifth Estate%27 and %27Twelve Years a Slave%27

Americans got to know him on PBS with %27Sherlock%2C%27 a British import

When you appear on the pop-culture radar of a guy like Damon Lindelof, you're doing something right.

The Lost co-creator first saw Benedict Cumberbatch on the first season of the British TV show Sherlock — which stars the English actor as a quirky, antisocial yet exceedingly brilliant modern-day version of the detective — and recommended his buddy, Star Trek director J.J. Abrams, take a look at Cumberbatch to play the villain of his sequel.

"When he came to meet us in L.A. for the first time, they had shot the second season, and I begged him for a DVD," Lindelof says. "He gave it to me and said that if I lost it he would have to kill me, at which point I fell deeply in love with him."

With galaxy-chewing gusto, Cumberbatch stars as the antagonist John Harrison in Star Trek Into Darkness (in theaters May 16), and between that, Sherlock and his upcoming motion-capture role as the dragon Smaug in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, his star status will be hoisted above just being a guy Anglophiles know and adore.

"I've always tried to mix up my work. I haven't made a plan of being a king of the geeks. It just happens that at this moment in time I've been the go-to guy," says Cumberbatch, whose big-screen fare thus far has tended to be of the period-drama sort, including Atonement,The Other Boleyn Girl, War Horse and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

That might be news for those who aren't already regulars on Team Cumberbatch, such as his large female fan base and cult contingent who follow him as Sherlock. In the past, he's likened getting ready to play the detective to revving up an engine and using a good amount of oil, concentration and focus, and it's similar to what he had to do for Harrison, a seemingly superhuman terrorist connected to Starfleet that Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and the U.S.S. Enterprise crew have to track down and capture.

Cumberbatch, 36, had to master both mind and body — for the latter, he gained enough muscle through training and eating 4,000 calories a day to build an intimidating figure. "I grew from a 38 (chest size) to a 42 in just over a month. I really went for it," he says.

Like his Sherlock, Harrison has a sharp intellect but in a different way. Whereas in the TV series (Cumberbatch is filming the third season now in the U.K.) there is a certain speed at which Sherlock's mind moves, Harrison has similar moments in Star Trek "but it's just to do with him being silver-tongued and very quick, not to do with moments of massive deduction like you get in Sherlock," Cumberbatch says.

"That's a very different muscle altogether — a really difficult one but very enjoyable when you hit the sweet spot."

What struck Lindelof about Cumberbatch, especially as Sherlock, was that there was a great unpredictability around him — "There's just nothing more exciting than an actor where you just literally don't know what they're going to do" — but also a sense of not needing the audience to like him and making choices that weren't always the most heroic.

"He had this incredible intelligence that was emanating from him, and I think that idea of it can be very dangerous and very scary when somebody's that smart. What if he were to use that power not for good but for something else?" says Lindelof, a screenwriter and producer on Star Trek Into Darkness. "He very easily could have been cast as Moriarty on this series and that would have been just as interesting."

While most of Cumberbatch's roles tend to be dunked in gravitas, Abrams appreciated the balance of his self-deprecating humor off-camera and that seriousness on.

"When someone's going to be playing a role in a movie like Star Trek, you need actors who are going to commit to this as if they're doing the most grounded true-story drama," the director says. "You can't have people going into this in the campy, silly way. You have to really sell it because if you don't, the audience will feel there is a disingenuous, by-the-numbers approach. And Benedict every day brought a respect to the character and the audience."

The son of British actors, the London-born Cumberbatch will continue to be seen on American shores for the rest of the year. In addition to Star Trek, he plays Little Charles Aiken in the movie adaptation of the play August: Osage County (Nov. 8), controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate (Nov. 15) and slave owner William Ford in Twelve Years a Slave (Dec. 27.)

And those are just the things where he's actually seen on screen — Cumberbatch also "shredded" his baritone voice to star as Smaug in the Hobbit sequel (Dec. 13).

"Every job is incredibly different and I love it because you're picking up skill sets and experiences. It's the university of life," Cumberbatch says.

"That's why I do it. I could do it for five people — I could just do it for my parents in the living room. For me it's not about the scale of the project or the size of the audience or following or thinking of what the audience wants. It's selfishly just this thing of really enjoying my job."

Immersing himself in sci-fi, though, is a bit of childhood wish fulfillment. While he enjoyed the morality tales of the original Star Trek reruns he watched over biscuits and tea in the early evening, he grew up adoring Star Wars — along with Indiana Jones, Han Solo was one of "the coolest, most aspirational heroes of my childhood," he says.

Ask Cumberbatch if he's available for Abrams' upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII, and he lets loose an impressive Wookiee roar in return.

"Where's Chewbacca in all of this? You want little baby Ewok-sized Chewbacca and a whole family of Chewbaccas," the actor says, fan-casting a subplot to the upcoming movie. (If you play a dragon in a movie, you can probably also play a furry co-pilot who growls a lot.)

"It's safe to say that J.J. knows my work and has my number. It would be great fun. Just promise me you won't have a banner headline where it goes, 'USA TODAY exclusive: Cumberbatch wants in with Star Wars director J.J. Abrams,' " he adds, laughing. "The worst way to try and get a job I think is to tout it in a national newspaper."

What else would you expect from the reigning king of the geeks?