Or perhaps that should be attempted to be kept secret! The identity of Benedict Cumberbatch's villain was "rumored" to be Khan for quite a while before the movie was released, but Abrams and others involved had always denied it. Speaking to MTV the director reveals the reason for the deception..

Several different sources had reported that Benedict Cumberbatch was actually playing classic Trek villain Khan in J.J. Abrams' secondflick months before the movie came out, but whenever the director or any cast members were quizzed about this it was firmly denied. Of course, they were lying -Cumberbatch was indeed playing the genetically enhanced super-villain. So why keep up the ruse when the cat was already out of the bag? Well, Abrams reckons it was all to keep the studio happy.he revealed to MTV.In hindsight Abrams feels that they perhaps should have just been upfront about it from the start.He is also asked about the rumor's thatdirector Joe Cornish is the man who'll take over the reigns of the franchise for, but although he admits that he'd love to see that, he says as far as he knows everything is still "up in the air".