Idris Elba Calls His STAR TREK BEYOND Villain "Groundbreaking For The Franchise"

Taking a page from J.J. Abrams' playbook, Star Trek Beyond director Justin Lin has been very quiet about what exactly we'll see when the movie arrives in theaters next year, saying simply that the movie will explore "whole new worlds and species" and won't rely on series staples like the Klingons and Romulans. One of the most mysterious elements of the movie is its villain, played by Idris Elba. We're still not sure who he is, what he wants, what species he is, or why he faces off against Chris Pine's Captain Kirk and crew, but Elba recently spoke with MTV and teased the "groundbreaking" nature of his character:

“Simon [Pegg] and the team have written a very interesting, complex journey for my character. You’ve never seen me play a character like this.”

“I think ’Star Trek’ has prided themselves as being quite classic when it comes to villains, like ’he’s a guy who wants to end the world,’ there’s no doubt about that. But in this version of the film, there’s a slightly different twist to that. It’s quite an interesting journey, which I think is groundbreaking for the franchise. But, it still keeps with the ’classic bad guy is a classic bad guy’ tone.”

We're still so far away from the movie's release that it's impossible to know what kind of twist he's talking about, but I'm excited about him playing a completely original character this time around and the movie (hopefully) not getting bogged down too much in its own past while paying tribute to the 50th anniversary of the franchise.

Star Trek Beyond blasts into theaters on its new release date of July 22nd, 2016.