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Star Trek Into Darkness

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Watch Star Trek Into Darkness with a subscription on Paramount+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

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Visually spectacular and suitably action packed, Star Trek Into Darkness is a rock-solid installment in the venerable sci-fi franchise, even if it's not as fresh as its predecessor.

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Published Dec 28, 2015

Cumberbatch: From Khan to Doctor Strange

Benedict Cumberbatch, who played Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness a couple of years back, will continue his ascent up the Hollywood food chain with Doctor Strange , the upcoming superhero movie in which he plays the titular surgeon-turned-Sorcerer Supreme/protector of Earth. The film actually just started production a few weeks ago, and shooting will carry on into the late winter, but Entertainment Weekly put Cumberbatch, in costume, on the cover of Jan. 8 issue.

Cumberbatch’s co-stars include Tilda Swinton, Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Mads Mikkelsen. Doctor Strange will be released on November 4, 2016.

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Film Review: ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’

J.J. Abrams sets his filmmaking to 'stun' with a sequel in every respect equal or even superior to its splendid 2009 predecessor

By Scott Foundas

Scott Foundas

• Film Review: ‘Black Mass’ 9 years ago
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J.J. Abrams sets his filmmaking to “stun” for “ Star Trek Into Darkness,” a sequel in every respect equal or even superior to its splendid 2009 predecessor, which lovingly and cleverly rebooted Gene Roddenberry ’s long-running space opera following the black hole of 2002’s “Star Trek Nemesis.” Markedly grander in scale, although never at the expense of its richly human (and half-human) characters, “Into Darkness” may not boldly go where no “Trek” adventure has gone before, but getting there is such a well-crafted, immensely pleasurable ride that it would be positively Vulcan to nitpick. Global box office cume should easily warp past the prior pic’s $385 million for this sturdy Paramount tentpole, which opens overseas May 9 before beaming down Stateside one week later.

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Abrams, whose last pic was the lyrical “E.T.”/“Close Encounters” homage “Super 8,” here tips his hat to the “Indiana Jones” series, opening with a thrilling setpiece that finds Kirk ( Chris Pine ) and Bones (the sly, loose-limbed Karl Urban ) on the run from a tribe of very angry natives on the planet Nibiru. The natives, decked out in head-to-toe clay body paint, shimmer like human ceramics as they chase the Starfleet officers through a crimson forest, the lush colors of returning d.p. Dan Mindel all but searing the screen. Meanwhile, Spock ( Zachary Quinto ) toils away nearby, attempting to insert a high-tech ice cube into the raging volcano that threatens to destroy Nibiru and its inhabitants — a dangerous mission that quickly goes awry, building to a classic “Trek” standoff between stubborn Vulcan logic and impulsive human emotion.

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The Enterprise crew has scarcely recovered from that one when, back on Earth, a terror bombing lays waste to a top-secret Starfleet intelligence facility and brings to the fore a new galactic baddie: a rogue Starfleet officer named John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) who claims credit for the attack and, after an equally brazen follow-up, hightails it deep into Klingon-controlled space. The hawkish Adm. Marcus ( Peter Weller ) dispatches the Enterprise in hot pursuit, with this familiar-sounding objective: Shoot first, ask questions later, and avoid starting a war with the locals. Welcome to “Star Trek Into Zero Dark Thirty.”

Only, this John Harrison is a slippery sort who, when given the chance, claims not to be the villain at all, but rather a pawn in someone else’s deadlier scheme. And for much of its running time, “ Star Trek Into Darkness ” makes a good guessing game out of whether this mysterious stranger with the glacial glare and bones seemingly made of steel is friend, foe or — like the “old Spock” of Abrams’ first “Trek” — a little bit of history repeating. It hardly matters, because whatever Cumberbatch is playing, he’s wonderful to watch, infusing the movie with the kind of exotic grandeur Eric Bana’s wan Romulan henchman (arguably the weakest link in the 2009 film) largely lacked. Also making her maiden “Trek” voyage is the lovely Alice Eve as an ambitious science officer who lies her way on to the Enterprise deck and makes goo-goo eyes with the good Captain. She is not, it turns out, the ship’s only stowaway.

Having previously established an alternate “Trek” timeline in which all the events of prior series and movies still happened, but aren’t necessarily doomed to recur, Abrams and returning writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (now joined by “Lost” co-creator Damon Lindelof) here take that idea and run with it, invoking prior “Trek” lore when it suits them, freely branching off into new directions when it doesn’t. (Hell, there’s even some trouble with a tribble.) It’s a tricky business, balancing reverence with reinvention, but like the young Kirk, Abrams seems altogether more comfortable in the captain’s chair this time — not just in the large-scale action scenes, but particularly in the quieter ones, where you can sense his real investment in these characters and his confident touch with actors.

SEE ALSO: ‘Star Trek’ Premieres in London (Photos)

The film builds particularly well on the burgeoning Kirk-Spock friendship, with Pine showing reserves of vulnerability and doubt beneath his cocksure exterior, while Quinto adds gravitas to Spock’s eternal inner conflict — and his deepening romance with Lt. Uhura ( Zoe Saldana ). But make no mistake: The action, when it comes, is superbly executed, whether it’s giant vessels making mincemeat of one another, or the simpler excitements of old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat and foot chases through crowded promenades.

The best, even-numbered films in the original “Trek” film franchise were shaped by the guiding intelligence of writer-director Nicholas Meyer , who laced the Starfleet jargon with high-toned literary references and a gently self-mocking sense of humor. Abrams, too, manages to keep the mood buoyant even when the fate of the universe is hanging in the balance, more than earning his tears when he finally decides to milk them. But if Meyer’s primary references were Shakespeare, Dickens and Conan Doyle, Abrams’ are Spielberg, John Hughes and Cameron Crowe. In defiance of the self-congratulatory snark that has become de rigueur in Hollywood franchise fare, he brings a shimmering pop romanticism to “Trek’s” stalwart ideals of friendship, heroism and self-sacrifice. There’s something bold about that, indeed.

“Into Darkness” is a beautifully modulated and sustained piece of work across the board, with visual effects that seamlessly meld live-action and computer-animated elements, given further texture by old-fashioned celluloid lensing (with 65mm Imax used for key action scenes). Post-production 3D conversion by Stereo D ranks among the best of its kind. The Enterprise has rarely looked sleeker than it does on production designer Scott Chambliss ‘ sets. Adding the cherry to the top of this cinematic sundae, composer Michael Giacchino ‘s soaring score once again revives Alexander Courage’s immortal Trek theme for the closing credits.

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Paramount Pictures

Reviewed at AMC Loews 34th Street, May 2, 2013. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 132 MIN.

• Production: A Paramount release presented with Skydance Productions of a Bad Robot production. Produced by J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Damon Lindelof, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci. Executive producers, Jeffrey Chernov, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Paul Schwake. Co-producers, Tommy Gormley, Tommy Harper, Ben Rosenblatt, Michelle Rejwan.
• Crew: Directed by J.J. Abrams. Screenplay, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, based on “Star Trek” created by Gene Roddenberry. Camera (Deluxe color, Panavision widescreen/35mm/Imax, 3D), Dan Mindel; editors, Maryann Brandon, Mary Jo Markey; music, Michael Giacchino; production designer, Scott Chambliss; supervising art director, Ramsey Avery; art directors, Kasra Farahani, Michael E. Goldman, Andrew E.W. Murdock, Harry E. Otto, Lauren Polizzi; set decorator, Karen Manthey; costume designer, Michael Kaplan; sound (Dolby Atmos/Datasat), Peter J. Devlin; sound designer, Ben Burtt; supervising sound editors, Burtt, Matthew Wood; re-recording mixers, Will Files, James Bolt; visual effects supervisor, Roger Guyett; ILM visual effects co-supervisor, Patrick Tubach; ILM visual effects producer, Luke O’Byrne; visual effects, Industrial Light & Magic, Pixomondo, Kelvin Optical, Atomic Fiction; stunt coordinator, John Stoneham Jr.; assistant director, Tommy Gormley; second unit director, Guyett; second unit camera, Bruce McCleery; casting, April Webster, Alyssa Weisberg.
• With: John Cho, Benedict Cumberbatch, Alice Eve, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Peter Weller, Anton Yelchin, Leonard Nimoy.

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Star Trek Into Darkness

Less a classic “ Star Trek ” adventure than a “ Star Trek “-flavored action flick, shot in the frenzied, handheld, cut-cut-cut style that’s become Hollywood’s norm, director J.J. Abrams’ latest could have been titled “The Bourne Federation.”

The plot pits the Enterprise crew against an intergalactic terrorist named John Harrison ( Benedict Cumberbatch , giving his honeyed baritone a workout), who’s waging war on the Federation for mysterious personal reasons. There’s a joke, an argument, a chase, a spaceship battle, or a brutal close-quarters firefight every five minutes, but all the action is intimately tied to character. The major players, particularly Chris Pine’s James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto ’s Mr. Spock, are as finely shaded as the incarnations played by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy . This new voyage of the starship Enterprise is brash, confident, and often brutally violent, and features the most lived-in production design I’ve seen in a Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster since “ Minority Report .” 

Why, then, is the film ultimately disappointing? I suspect it’s the pop culture echo chamber effect: Abrams and his screenwriters ( Robert Orci , Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof ) are so obsessed with acknowledging and then futzing around with what we already know about Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scotty and company that the movie doesn’t breathe. “Star Trek Into Darkness” is peppered with nods to past films and episodes: Kirk’s impetuous decision-making and horndog sexual proclivities; Spock’s denial of his half-humanness; Dr. McCoy’s cranky witticisms; Scotty’s protestations of what he and the ship “canna” do; references to tribbles and neutral zones and the Harry Mudd incident. The central plotline refers to one of Trek’s most celebrated storylines — a callback that alternately seems to honor the original, then turn it on its head, then honor it again. The final act includes an homage to one of the most famous scenes in the entire Trek canon — but this, too, is an inversion, or appears to be, until the script springs another whiplash reversal.

The story starts with a “ Raiders of the Lost Ark “-like action sequence: Kirk, Spock and the gang are embroiled in a secret mission on a red jungle planet filled with superstitious tribespeople whose lives are threatened by a volcanic eruption. The correct thing to do is leave Mr. Spock behind, because going back to rescue him would violate the Federation’s Prime Directive against messing with the natural development of primitive cultures. It’s in this opening sequence, for better or worse, that the movie establishes a vexing narrative pattern: The characters have urgently necessary arguments about the morally, ethically, and procedurally correct thing to do in a crisis, then one character (usually Kirk) makes a unilateral, straight-from-the-gut decision that worsens everything; and yet somehow at the end he’s rewarded, or at least not seriously punished.

We’re given to understand that it’s always a good thing to prize personal friendship and loyalty above the concerns of one’s crew, ship, federation or species. Sometimes the reward is quite deliberate — as in the end scene, which finds Kirk being celebrated as a hero after making what looked to me like a series of catastrophic rookie mistakes that ended dozens of lives. Other times it’s as if the cosmos itself is rewarding or at least protecting Kirk, as when he loses command of the Enterprise for his behavior on the primitive planet, then gets it back thanks to another sudden plot twist. A good alternate title for this movie would be the name of one of Steven Soderbergh ’s great books about filmmaking: “Getting Away With It: Or, the Further Adventures of the Luckiest Bastard You Ever Saw.” The Federation itself seems to have plenty in common with Kirk: Both the opening mission and a subsequent intergalactic act of aggression are presented as having grave consequences if they fail, then the film just sort of writes them off with a shrug, as if to say, “Well, that’s all in the past, and as long as it doesn’t happen again, no harm, no foul.” (Has anyone in the Federation actually honored the Prime Directive?)

Yes, the film’s stumblebum plotting comes from a desire to give the audience what it wants: Kirk in command, flying by the seat of his tight pants; Spock learning it’s OK to acknowledge and act on his emotions, and that there’s more to life than following rules; etc. But surely there were more elegant ways to get us there! Abrams makes the 23rd century look like a place of actions and consequences, in which humans and other creatures might actually live, think and feel, in a world in which a fall of more than ten feet could break a leg, lava can melt flesh, and people who are dead stay dead. But he also tells stories in which various practices, rules and laws, including Starfleet tactical procedures, the Prime Directive, and gravity, have no narrative weight. Too much of “Star Trek Into Darkness” has what I call a “playground storytelling” sensibility: “Lie down, you’re dead. Never mind, you’re alive again — now fight!” This narrative flailing-about isn’t merely amateurish, it’s at odds with the gritty production design and pseudo-documentary camerawork and references to 9/11 and the War on Terror. It takes a great artist to be both serious and silly. Abrams, for all his enthusiasm, ain’t it.

For all its sloppiness and blind spots and fanboy pirouettes, though, “Star Trek Into Darkness” is still an involving film with more heart than most summer blockbusters. Abrams’ roots in TV ( Felicity , Alias , Lost ) seem to have made him attentive to the dynamics of groups, and to the repeated phrases and gestures that bond viewers to characters. Pine’s beefy frat-boy Kirk is appealing, especially when he’s being called on the carpet; Pine has several strong scenes opposite Cumberbatch’s Harrison and Bruce Greenwood ’s mentor-father figure, Capt. Pike, in which Pine is overmatched as both character and actor but uses the imbalance to enhance the scene. Sometimes you see terror in Kirk’s eyes as he blusters; his vulnerability makes you root for him even though his “I gotta be me!” philosophy destroys careers and ends lives.

Quinto’s Spock is equal to, but different than, Leonard Nimoy’s incarnation, and it’s a relief to see that Abrams has made the destruction of Vulcan in the first film a key component of the character’s psychology. As Spock explains to communications officer Uhura ( Zoe Saldana ), his main squeeze, it’s not that he can’t feel any emotion, it’s that he’s decided he’s better off not feeling it: this Spock is a Holocaust survivor who has adopted numbness as a survival strategy. Uhura, Simon Pegg ’s Scotty, John Cho ’s Sulu, Anton Yelchin ’s Chekov, and Karl Urban ’s “Bones” McCoy have their moments, too; they behave like plausibly real people even when the script is asking them to do and say things that common sense tells us is horse manure, and their presences lend the film a dignity it doesn’t earn.

* Edited 6/22/18 to remove a reference to a “forthcoming” detailed blog post on the film that the reviewer ended up not writing.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor-at-Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

• Zachary Quinto as Spock
• Benedict Cumberbatch as John Harrison
• Chris Pine as James T. Kirk
• Simon Pegg as Scotty
• Zoe Saldana as Nyota Uhura
• Alex Kurtzman
• Damon Lindelof
• Roberto Orci
• April Webster

Cinematography

• Daniel Mindel
• Gene Roddenberry
• J.J. Abrams

Original Music Composer

• Michael Giacchino

Production Design

• Scott Chambliss

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Benedict Cumberbatch, Out of Darkness

I meet Benedict Cumberbatch the afternoon after an awkward ­appearance on Letterman, where he was promoting his part as John Harrison, an intergalactic terrorist, in J. J. Abrams’s Star Trek Into Darkness. It’s a summery spring day in New York, and we’re on the patio of his room at the Bowery Hotel. Cumberbatch—his dead-white complexion shaded by a newsboy cap—is “chuffed” by his posh digs; it’s his first starring role in a blockbuster, and he’s not used to this level of star treatment—well, from everyone except David Letterman, who has not, apparently, been following the actor’s rise as avidly as the actor’s Internet fan club, the ­Cumberbitches. Not only did Cumberbatch have to follow an animal act, but Letterman, who began by referring to Star Trek as Star Wars, asked his guest—a ­veteran of twenty movies, including ­ Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and War Horse —if he was new to major motion pictures. (The actor, being the polite, Harrow-­educated Brit that he is, jumped in to save his host: “This major? Yes!”) I tell Cumberbatch that, given Letterman’s cluelessness, I was surprised there weren’t the usual efforts to wring a laugh from his name.

“Well, since he couldn’t even say it,” says the actor. “At one point, before I came on, he announced me as ‘Benedict Cumber… ,’ and his voice sort of trailed off. My friends said, ‘What the fuck was that? It was like his batteries ran out.’ But that’s the sort of thing that’s been happening here, where I’m not as well known,” he continues. “It’s strange to be 36 and still explaining the weirdness of my name.”

Cumberbatch is very well known in Britain and practically a superstar ­online thanks to his Golden Globe–nominated role as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC’s high-tech, modern-day Sherlock , which debuted in 2010. (It’s more of a cult hit here, where it airs on PBS.) “I generally don’t look to see what people are saying about me,” he says. “But when the show started to explode in Britain, and I was reading stuff online, I started to think it was real. I thought I’d walk outside my door and hundreds of people would be lining the streets, cameras would be flashing. I quickly ­realized the audience was virtual.”

Well, not really. Those are flesh-and-blood fans huddled outside the London locations of Sherlock, which is currently shooting its third season. “That’s why I have this ridiculous length and color,” says Cumberbatch, tugging at his black hair (he’s naturally auburn). “Every time I take Sherlock out of the box, I have to put the fucking hair dye on.”

This is a man who lives for details. His breakout role in Britain was the young Stephen Hawking in the BBC’s 2004 film Hawking . It introduced one of his great talents—humanizing the analytical—and a reputation for precision and obsessive preparation. To wit, this description of his Star Trek villain, a genetically engineered superman: “I wanted Harrison’s voice to have something slightly manufactured and odd, that sounded test-tube-made, where every word was sort of etched,” Cumberbatch explains. “I was keen to make his violence quick—not balletic, but purposeful. And his physique—he’s not Bane, he’s not this unsurpassable physical entity. He’s a warrior, a spearhead—someone who just carves his way through and doesn’t stop. There had to be emotion in the movement as well, and when he was at rest, it was more reptilian.”

Cumberbatch prefers the hows to the whys of acting, and he found a kindred spirit in Meryl Streep, his co-star in this fall’s August: Osage County . “I asked her how she approached the multiple layers of her part,” says Cumberbatch. “And she said, ‘I don’t know. I don’t have a process. It changes with every job, doesn’t it?’ And I thought, Oh, thank God, to hear her say it. This whole thing about technique or method? It’s bullshit. People say, ‘Oh, you’re so precise.’ But within that I work very hard to give every part a heartbeat. I learned a lot from just watching Meryl in repose. It was a bit like a Sherlock deduction actually.”

Once people have digested the ­absurdity of his name, the next reaction generally goes like this: “Oh, yeah, he’s good. But he’s so strange -looking.” Letter­man featured the Tumblr, Otters Who Look Like Benedict Cumberbatch , which the actor considers “utterly brilliant.” To my mind, his big, impacted features are more reminiscent of an Easter Island head—a near parody of good looks that can have the effect of making more ­traditionally movie-star handsome actors (say, Star Trek ’s Chris Pine) look dull by comparison. They can also distract from the transformative physicality he brings to every part, from buttoned-up brainiacs (Christopher ­Tietjens in the recent BBC Two mini-series Parade’s End ) to the more ­explosive demands of Danny Boyle’s 2011 stage production of Frankenstein, in which Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternately played Victor ­Frankenstein and his creature.

What are the odds, I ask Cumberbatch, that you and your friend Miller would both end up playing Sherlock Holmes? (Miller is the star of the CBS hit Elementary. ) “We laughed about it a lot,” he says. “I love his show. It’s a deviation, a beautiful and interesting one. Our Sherlock chimes much more with Conan Doyle’s original—I don’t think Jonny would mind me saying that.”

Where Cumberbatch’s Holmes is notably asexual (while still managing to be sexy), Miller’s is the opposite. Yet, curiously, the former has more chemistry with his Watson, played by Martin Freeman, than the latter has with his, played by Lucy Liu. Cumberbatch has a history of compelling rapports with his male ­co-stars. “I’m basically gay, is that what you’re saying?” he says with a laugh. No, it’s not sexual chemistry, just a more ­delicate version of male friendship than we’re used to seeing in American films, where relationships between bros tend to be warier and more superficial. “I see a similar tenderness between Kirk and Spock,” he says. “It speaks to the sort of friendship you’re talking about, and maybe that was part of my appeal for J.J.”

If Harrison is a bit of an enigma, the intentions of Cumberbatch’s next character, Julian Assange, were crystal clear. This time the challenges were less physical than moral. The script for November’s The Fifth Estate is based on two one-sided accounts that are not pro-­Assange, a man the actor admires: “No matter how you cut it, he’s done us a massive service, to wake us up to the zombielike way we absorb our news.”

Though he and Assange have never met, Cumberbatch says the two had “a form of communication. He hates the idea of the film and asked me not to do it, and I said to him, ‘Well, somebody is going to do it, wouldn’t you rather it’s someone who has your ear, who could steer the film to a place that’s more accurate or balanced?’ The tabloid image of him, what he fears is going to be promoted—that weird, white-haired guy wanted for rape—is so far from what we did.”

Comparatively speaking, ­December’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was just good, sweaty fun. Cumberbatch did his time at Peter Jackson’s motion-caption studio playing the titular, gold-hoarding dragon as well as the ­Necromancer and resents reports to the contrary. “It was publicized that I ‘voice’ Smaug, and I thought, Fucking hell. My voice, my motions—I worked my ass off to create that dragon!”

*This article originally appears in the May 27, 2013 issue of New York Magazine.

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With his upcoming movie  Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness   set to make a splash very soon, now seems like a perfect time to look back through lead actor Benedict Cumberbatch's diverse and acclaimed filmography up to this point. To help, Ranker has put together an exhaustive list of the internet's favorite movies of his.

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Cumberbatch has plenty of experience with acting both on the screen and on the stage. and as the son of two successful actors, the practice has clearly always been a huge part of his life. The actor received his second Best Actor nomination at the Oscars this year for his performance in Jane Campion's  The Power of the Dog .

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

Although Peter Jackson's  The Hobbit   trilogy wasn't quite as successful as his original Lord of the Rings   adaptations, Tolkien fans still found plenty to love - namely, Cumberbatch's chilling performance as the primary antagonist Smaug opposite Martin Freeman's Bilbo Baggins.

Incidentally, this isn't the first time that Cumberbatch and Freeman have starred opposite each other on-screen. The pair also played close friends Holmes and Watson in BBC's Sherlock , a performance with which Cumberbatch has become somewhat synonymous.

Third Star (2010)

Third Star  is a touching comedy/drama by British director Hattie Dalton that chronicles a dying young man named James' journey to his favorite place on Earth - Barafundle Bay. The film also stars Tom Burke and Adam Robertson, whose secondary characters really bring this quaint story to life.

Although it may not be the most popular or mainstream pick, there are many that believe  Third Star  to be one of Cumberbatch's most underrated films to date. It tells an extremely emotional and important story without ever wallowing in misery, instead bringing a much-needed aspect of comedy to keep the audience engaged.

1917 (2019)

Although Cumberbatch's role in Sam Mendes' sweeping war drama  1917   is admittedly small, he still makes a strong impression on the audience due to his character's bold and striking personality. He may only have a few minutes of screentime, but he does much more with them than you'd imagine.

Despite narrowly missing out on Best Picture at the 2020 Oscars ,  1917  has undeniably been one of the most influential films of the past few years thanks to its revolutionary and engrossing look at trench warfare. There are few films as immersive and compelling as  1917 , so it should come as no surprise to find it on this list.

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

In J.J. Abrams'  Star Trek Into Darkness ,  Benedict Cumberbatch plays the iconic franchise character Khan - despite what many fan theories might say about his character's true identity. His presence in this Star Trek sequel is unforgettable, as he truly makes an impression as this arresting villain.

RELATED: The 10 Best Ferengi Episodes of Star Trek, According to IMDb

Although Cumberbatch's casting as Khan was widely disputed upon the film's release, it's hard to argue that the actor didn't at least give 100% to the role and put his own unique spin on the character. He stands out as one of the most interesting villains in the Star Trek universe even today.

Hawking (2004)

Before  Eddie Redmayne embodied Hawking in one of his best movies ,  The Theory of Everything ,  Benedict Cumberbatch also captured the spirit of the eccentric scientist in this BBC TV movie. The film follows the early period of Hawking's academic career, including his life-changing diagnosis.

Despite being one of Cumberbatch's earlier performances, his acting talent still shines through in this complex and difficult role. He manages to embody the physicist perfectly, capturing all of his individual traits and qualities whilst carefully exploring the challenges of his disability.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Widely regarded as the best film in the MCU's Thor   trilogy,  Ragnarok   explores a story that sees the titular hero trapped on a faraway planet as his long-lost sister Hela razes his homeworld Asgard to the ground. It has a much more entertaining and comedic tone than the previous two installments thanks to Waititi's unique direction.

RELATED: Ranking Every Villain In The Thor Movies

Ragnarok  also boasts the inclusion of Mark Ruffalo's  Hulk , a character that had previously been missing within the MCU for several years. Ruffalo and Hemsworth's on-screen chemistry is consistently entertaining to watch, but it's the new and returning side characters like Loki and Valkyrie that really steal the show.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Endgame   was indisputably one of the defining cultural events of this generation. Marking the conclusion of a whole decade of cinema, the film chronicled the remaining Avengers' journey into the past to retrieve the destroyed Infinity Stones, save their friends, and take down Thanos for good.

Cumberbatch reprised his role as Doctor Strange in the film, though his character's 'vanishing' at the end of the previous installment prevented him from helping out the remaining Avengers until the final battle. Regardless, his character still had a huge role to play and made a grand impression on this epic story.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Despite featuring one of the largest ensemble casts ever in a superhero movie,  Avengers: Infinity War   still makes plenty of time for Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange in its grand and epic story. He spends much of the film off-world, whether that's taking down Thanos' crew or visiting the homeworld of the Mad Titan himself.

Strange plays a  huge  role in this story, with his visions of the future ultimately saving the day for the Avengers and their friends. He's able to figure out exactly what needs to happen in order for Thanos to be stopped, and follows through with this even if it means sacrificing himself and plenty of others to do so.

Doctor Strange (2016)

Doctor Strange   was the film that really kicked off the cosmic, multiversal aspect of the MCU on which it's focusing so strongly right now. It also introduced audiences to the Time Stone, which not only played a huge part in the culmination of the Infinity Saga but also allowed for some of the most engaging action sequences in the entire MCU.

Cumberbatch's performance as Stephen Strange is one of the all-time great superhero performances, and this film knows exactly how to draw the best out of the actor.  His relationship with love interest Christine Palmer gave the film a much-needed human element, and fans are excited to see their dynamic rekindled in  Multiverse of Madness

The Imitation Game (2014)

In this critically-acclaimed historical biopic, Benedict Cumberbatch plays famous mathematician Alan Turing, who became famous for cracking the Enigma Code during World War 2.  The Imitation Game   explores Turing's early life, including his work with the British cryptography team.

The film is often praised as one of the most gripping and insightful historical wartime biopics of all time , with Cumberbatch's performance often cited as the film's strongest aspect. And whilst the screenplay and direction are all great, there's no denying that it's Cumberbatch that's the real star of the film.

NEXT: 10 Best Benedict Cumberbatch Movies & TV Shows, Ranked (According to Metacritic)

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Benedict Cumberbatch on 'Star Trek' secrets

They share the face and the brandy-hued baritone, but you could never mistake Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch for the prickly savant of the BBC’s Baker Street — not only is the actor relentlessly polite he’s also never clubbed a cadaver in the name of scientific inquiry. The sleuth may have shined through for a moment last summer though when Cumberbatch showed a Holmesian impatience for unanswered questions and state secrets. “It’s achingly irritating,” Cumberbatch said when asked about the secrecy surrounding his role in this May’s Star Trek Into Darkness . “Believe me, I’d rather talk about the role and the fantastic story and all the things J.J. [Abrams] has come up with. And then everyone would be as excited about the film as I am. But then of course I think I would be on a phone call coming from J.J.’s office…”

Abrams directed the eleventh film in a Starfleet series, 2009’s well-reviewed Star Trek , which beamed up $258 million in domestic box office to set the 30-year-old franchise’s new record ($110 million by Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in 1986 dropped to second). At Paramount Pictures, all of that and the film’s strong showing in home-video sales and rentals has stoked expectations for the sequel — which has only intensified the already notorious Abrams zeal for script and set secrecy.

At the top of the Top Secret list is the role played by Cumberbatch, who was announced as the movie’s mystery villain one year ago last week. Abrams will never attain his ideal — that every fan is in the dark (literally and figuratively) as they sit down on opening night — but Cumberbatch endorses the effort despite its impositions.

“Mystique is rare now, isn’t it? There aren’t that many enigmas in this modern world,” Cumberbatch said. “Myself, I quite enjoyed seeing Super 8 and not knowing the story and then being mesmerized by it … [but] we live in the modern world, which is a place of oversaturation and now people, especially Trekkies, want to know everything before they witness it themselves. It’s strange to me. I think of it as a kid having a box of chocolates and not knowing what’s good for them. They eat three and they keep eating as they get sick… and the candy is gone.”

Cumberbatch meanwhile is gobbling up opportunities. Consider his December to remember: The Hobbit (featuring the first look at the motion-capture dragon Smaug that he’ll voice in the sequels) arrived at theaters with a special IMAX preview of Star Trek Into Darkness —the day after the actor earned a Golden Globe nomination for Sherlock.

The actor (whose mother and father put together long careers in television and on the stage) also appeared in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and War Horse, movies that co-starred Tom Hardy and Tom Hiddleston, respectively, two British actors close in age who have heeded the call to Hollywood villainy: Hardy played Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, Hiddleston played Loki in The Avengers.

“There’s a long tradition of British actors playing villains, I’m not sure what to say about that,” a grinning Cumberbatch said in another interview, this one in December at a rooftop party at Abrams’ company, Bad Robot. “It’s not the thing I will be doing each time out, but I’m thrilled it worked out with this one.”

It’s a role that the actor got through a last-minute audition video that was recorded and sent by iPhone and staged in a friend’s kitchen with two chairs and a lamp. The shoestring spirit fits the heritage of the Trek brand, which started with the 1960s series that was heavy on concept and thin on special effects budget.

Cumberbatch’s unspecified “iconic” villain will ultimately come from a fairly short list. Unlike Gotham City, Trek villainy is defined factions, e.g.: the Klingons, Romulans, Borg, etc. The fans have their money on Khan, the genetically upgraded tyrant portrayed by Ricardo Montalbán in a February 1967 episode of the original television series. Montalbán reprised the role in the 1982 feature film, Nicholas Meyer’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , routinely picked in fan polls as the best of Enterprise adventures on the big screen.

There are other options — Gary Mitchell, a Starfleet officer driven mad after acquiring great mental abilities, for instance — and there are plenty of mixed signals coming from people involved in the production. (The IMAX preview footage showed Cumberbatch as an emotionally flat but intensely focused figure of suspicion named John Harrison but also leaves the implication that the name is an alias.)

No matter who Cumberbatch portrays, Abrams and his creative team say the actor will own the part. Damon Lindleof, cowriter of Prometheus and a key member of Abrams’ Lost team, said Cumberbatch in person manages to top even his reputation. “Benedict has his own gravity, both as an actor and a human being,” Lindeloff says. “He pulls you in and you are powerless to escape.” (Perhaps feeling a bit reserved in his appraisal, Lindelof added: “I never knew whether to cry out in fear or weep in his arms.”)

Before the new film opens, Cumberbatch will be on the job as Sherlock when the third season begins in March, reteaming with The Hobbit costar Martin Freeman, who plays James Watson on the show. Some fans hear hints in recent comments by show co-creator Steven Moffat suggesting this will be the final season. Cumberbatch says he loves the complex weave of a character who is as slippery as his mind is nimble. “You look at the second season and he’s more formidable, but you see he’s also more vulnerable, learning and changing, too,” the actor said. “He is a dangerous man and dangerous to know. He is — despite being on the side of the angels — not one of them.”

The blurring and nuance carry over to the mystery Trek role, too, Cumberbatch said. There’s no doubt of his menace however: “He is a one-man weapon of mass destruction, a terrorist with a cause.” Cumberbatch joins an interesting rogue’s gallery of Trek villains, too, if you consider the film series has featured Hardy, Christopher Plummer, F. Murray Abraham, Eric Bana, Christopher Lloyd and, one of Cumberbatch’s idols, Malcolm McDowell. In 1994, McDowell played Dr. Tolian Soran the unhinged genius who killed off Capt. James T. Kirk in Star Trek: Generations , the last film in which the role belonged to William Shatner.

“What actors like [McDowell] do is resist the mustache twirling,” Cumberbatch said. “It’s very easy to come off as just crazy [in the villain role] and I tried with this role to look for something unsettling and investigative. He is a great story, my character. I can’t say who the guy is but his story has some amazing — and starkly modern — parables. And best of all, it’s been so much fun. Playing the not-good-guy is really fun. But that’s all I can say.”

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Benedict Cumberbatch Revealed ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ Secrets To Stephen Hawking

| April 21, 2018 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 36 comments so far

We start this week’s Great Links roundup with some Khan memories. The 2013 film Star Trek Into Darkness was cloaked in secrecy. The biggest thing being kept under wraps was how Benedict Cumberbatch’s character of John Harrison was actually Khan Noonien Singh, something director J.J. Abrams later said he regretted keeping secret. However, it turns out there was one person let in on the secret, and that is the late Stephen Hawking.

Appearing on the BBC’s The Graham Norton Show , the actor revealed that he spilled to beans solely to Professor Hawking, after sharing a number of margaritas. Cumberbatch said he felt Hawking “deserved” to know, which is fair enough as the renowned scientist was a fellow Star Trek actor as well .

More Great Links

Lists of the week.

Screenrant: Star Trek: 21 Crazy Things Only True Fans Know About The Original Series

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Mental Floss: 10 Tantalizing Tidbits About Star Trek: The Next Generation

Syfy Wire: Dream Casting: Star Trek: The Next Generation

MeTV: 3 details you might have missed  on Star Trek

Famous Trekkies of the week

AV Club: We asked NASA astronauts Nicole Stott and Leland Melvin: What movies get space exploration right?

Forbes: Alexa, Star Trek, Creativity And Extraordinary Brands: A Dialogue With Brian Collins

Instagram of the week: Wu Tang goes Spock

The official account for the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan shared this image this week, showing some love for Star Trek.

Wu! A post shared by Wu Tang Clan (@wutangclan) on Apr 14, 2018 at 11:10am PDT

Video of the week: Wrath of Ben 10

Nerdist’s Talking Toons show once again has gone Trek, this time recreating the most famous scene from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , with characters from the cartoon Ben 10 .

Bonus video of the week: That’s a lot of Klingon coffee

EC Henry on YouTube decided to count up all the mentions of Raktajino, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s favorite beverage.

That’s it for this week’s update. Keep up with all the fun Star Trek from around the web in our Great Links category .

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Watch: Kirk’s ‘Wrath Of Khan’ Scream But In Claymation

Was Raktajino some kind of inside joke on DS9? LOL

It was a super strong Klingon coffee… I’d expect it to be ridiculously strong but aside from that I don’t think it was a joke.

“Deserved to know” what exactly? I’ll bet Prof. Hawking was on the edge of his seat. The arrogance of this mad is above and beyond.

Still a bit salty after nearly five years?

WOW, that guy needs to chill.

Bitter much?

With the old adage of “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”, when Stephen Hawking heard the plotline for ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’, he did the polite thing and said nothing. He knew CRAP when he heard it!

So you were there when they had this conversation?

That raktajino video is golden! I shared it with my facebook group and spammed it on Discord.

Hawking’s chair immediately starting beeping twice for no. If Sherlock was a true friend he would’ve told him to bail after the capture scene on Quonos.

All they had to do was name him John Harrison & let the audience decide but the arrogance of the writers & producers assumed they could railroad it & the results are very mixed.

That’s what happens when you have a writing team that refers to themselves as the ‘supreme court’ :D

4 year gap between movies was way too long their egos matched the delay perfectly!! All they had to was drop the Khan aspect & Cumberbatch hype, lose the political commentary & the box office would have been a lot more than it ended up as.

Its easy to pick on them now but its still relevant. So much arrogance from these guys. They thought they knew everything and thus, didnt want to learn.

I disagree. If they had actually had the character of Khan do something interesting as opposed to a completely new character called Khan doing something uninteresting, it would have been a lot better.

Having a superman with no reference to Khan would have left fans salty too.

None of the fans would appreciate 2001 with so many unanswered questions. People hate to think for themselves these days, or try to interpret unspoken truths. The movie would have been far better without the line “I am Khan!” There would have been a little bit of debate as to exactly who he was due to the obvious racial differences. [Yeah, yeah, I know it was addressed in the ‘official’ IDW comic but how many people bought that?] Kirk’s reply should have been “Wait, the weiner guy?” Khan who? Really. How many Khans throughout history?

“I must confess one thing, Dr. Hawking: this movie sucks”

I laughed out loud when I read this. So true.

Cumberbatch was obviously miscast as Khan, but ironically he’d make a fantastic Spock. In fact he’d be perfect for the role — more than any other actor today. Not just his appearance; he’d really be able to do the distinctive deep voice, demeanour, gravitas, all of it. The DSC guys should keep him in mind if they eventually change their minds about not recasting the role and are looking for a suitable guest star.

I dunno I think BC plays a pretty confident smarter-than-though archetype but I don’t think he’d make an endearing Spock. I’m still not convinced anyone can capture Nimoy’s Spock.

Maybe Cumberbatcb really is John Harrison and lied that he was Khan? Maybe he killed Khan off screen and took his identity as a smokescreen?

There are a lot of ways we can make STID better by imagine a bunch of things happening that didn’t.

It was addressed in the ‘official’ IDW comic.

Star Trek Into Disaster:

– 2 very talented actors wasted with badly written roles (Cumberbatch, Weller) – Unbelievably evil Starfleet admiral – Spock Prime phone-a-friend – Khan, no explanation needed – Rehashed TWOK scenes and dialogue – Portable Transwarp Beaming Device – Super blood – Plot? What plot?

Ditto. Excelent points.

STID had plot. It had lots of plot. It had truckloads of plot.

What it lacked was a STORY.

@Benj SOOOO correct.

Weller was awesome but under-served by the lousy script. BC was totally mis-cast and honestly, as good as he is, letting his chew the scenery screamed of trying to manufacture those great scenes of the past (like Kirk’s “you killed my son” or Picard’s “the line must be drawn here”). It didnt work.

One dimensional mustache twirling villain. It made no sense. So the head of Star Fleet is also Sec 31 which is a secret but obviously not much of one. And he has a model of his super secret ship on his desk?

Waste of Nimoy. If the writers sat around totally unable to come up with a reason, any reason, for why they needed to call Spock Prime, they should have quit in disgrace. “Hey do you know Khan?” “Sure do!” “Cool, gotta run!”

Star Fleet needs a guy from 1990 to help them develop super advanced weapons. Uh huh. I mean, God, did a CHILD write this story?

I didnt mind the WoK scene on initial viewing, the problem is it made me nostalgic for a WAY better film. And despite Spock’s revival in TSFS, the death scene in WoK felt meaningful. They couldnt go 5 minutes without undoing it in STID. Totally worthless. And WORSE, they had an amazing opportunity to something that both tickled their nostalgia fancy AND could have been poignant – a radiation chamber death scene..hmmm, oh PIKE! Wait, we kill him earlier for NO reason other then a set up for Spock and his girlfriend to have an unprofessional argument in the middle of a critical mission

Dont need ships! Got transwarp beaming!

The WORST scene in the whole film was the ANVIL foreshadow involving the blood and the tribble. Tense scene interrupted with “Hey Bones, what are you doing with that tribble?” UGH Hit us over the year why dont you.

You want to use Khan’s blood? Fine. But magic resurrection blood that renders the victim PERFECTLY fine? Ridiculous. CHILD LIKE story telling.

No plot to see.

I think what happened was STID was all the leftover stuff from making the 09 movie (gah, is it really almost 10 years ago?). Someone meant to throw it all away but they put it in the wrong bin and someone else patched it together to make a movie.

@Chris, you could be right. Someone meant to throw it in the trash, but mistook Bob’s desk for the garbage can. He thought it was great and voila. Star Trek Into Disappointment

Let’s face it, if STID bumped up against SHIT, SHIT would try it’s best to rub it off!

After all, SHIT has standards!

Bob Orci will be along soon to remind everyone how rich he is. Sort of like a bank robber gloating over robbing your account. lol

Would have loved to have heard Hawking’s trademark mechanical voice sound say “what the F” in response to this. Making Khan a British white dude and then keeping it secret were just dumb-ass decisions.

I hate to break it to everyone but it was the worst kept secret ever.

If Secret Hideout is assigned more All Access Trek programming, they could do worse than “Star Trek: Portable Transwarp Beaming Device Squad” (a saga of serendipity).

It was a nice gesture on Cumberbatch’s part. Being in bad health myself, not knowing if tomorrow is coming or not, and really, Hawking was a miracle unto himself for his longevity, I’d have appreciated a heads- up. I can’t sit in a theater any longer, so here’s hoping I make it to the digital release of Infinity Wars. And beyond!

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Benedict Cumberbatch Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

We’re ranking the films of Benedict Cumberbatch ! Let’s start with his Certified Fresh films, including his residency as Doctor Strange in the MCU ( Avengers: Endgame , Spider-Man: No Way Home ), Best Actor-nominated The Power of the Dog and The Imitation Game , and Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave . Cumberbatch’s Rotten films with positive Audience Scores include The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies , Third Star , and The Other Boleyn Girl . — Alex Vo

12 Years a Slave (2013) 95%

Avengers: Endgame (2019) 94%

The Power of the Dog (2021) 94%

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) 93%

The Imitation Game (2014) 90%

Starter for 10 (2006) 90%

Doctor Strange (2016) 89%

1917 (2019) 88%

Avengers: Infinity War (2018) 85%

The Courier (2020) 85%

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) 84%

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) 84%

Atonement (2007) 83%

Four Lions (2009) 83%

The Child in Time (2017) 79%

War Horse (2011) 75%

The Mauritanian (2021) 75%

The Whistleblower (2010) 76%

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) 74%

Black Mass (2015) 73%

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) 74%

Penguins of Madagascar (2014) 74%

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021) 69%

August: Osage County (2013) 67%

Amazing Grace (2006) 68%

The Current War: Director's Cut (2019) 61%

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) 59%

Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (2018) 59%

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018) 51%

Creation (2009) 47%

Third Star (2010) 47%

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) 43%

The Fifth Estate (2013) 36%

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Q&A: Benedict Cumberbatch on ‘Star Trek,’ ‘Sherlock’ and Julian Assange

By Katie Van Syckle

Katie Van Syckle

Benedict Cumberbatch hits Hollywood at warp speed this summer, armed with a space suit and a name that would make even Charles Dickens blush. The English actor is best known as the titular character on BBC America’s Sherlock , but this weekend, Americans will meet him as the vengeful terrorist John Harrison in Star Trek Into Darkness . Cumberbatch spoke with Rolling Stone about his natural state (ramshackle), intense fan following ( @cumberbitches ) and his next role (code-cracker Alan Turing).

Summer Movie Preview 2013: Star Trek Into Darkness

I read that you weren’t a Trek fan growing up. When you’re a kid, Star Trek is a slower burn. It’s funny, it’s entertaining, but it also has a maturity about it – which is its universal appeal, I think. It’s about the nature of existence, what it means to belong and what future democracy could be.

How would you describe your character, John Harrison? He’s a one-man weapon of mass destruction, driven by super-human levels of emotion. The care he has for his people, his crew and his family is a complete parallel to Kirk.

What did you mean when you called him a “ home grown terrorist ?” Well, sadly, it’s all too relevant – one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. He’s someone that’s activated and manufactured in a way by Star Fleet, and it’s a scene that has come back to haunt him. And you don’t have to look far into the daily news cycle to see, whether it’s U.S. foreign policy or the actions of some terrorists, how this is a modern day truth that we sadly have to live with.

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Chris Pine said you bring a “ scalpel-like precision ” to the performance. Is that true for your other roles? I think some things are much more organic or ramshackle. I played the wonderful role of Little Charles for the film version of August Osage County , with Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep at the helm. Little Charles is anything but scalpel like – he’s this lost soul, this thirty-something kid who’s just purposeless. It’s a modern tragedy, the opposite of the kind of entertainment in Star Trek . And of course, people might draw comparisons between Harrison and Sherlock, too, but I do try to mix it up. I had to work really hard at that position, actually. I’m not that much like Sherlock. It’s not something that comes easily to me. I’m much more of a ramshackle. I know I speak fast, but I don’t have a good memory and I’m not half as intelligent as he is.

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You have an incredible fan following. What has been your weirdest experience? Oh God – I’ve had a few. I got live tweeted once by someone who was opposite my home in some rented accommodation. He was actually describing on twitter what I was doing. ‘I took a shirt off, I went to the window, I put a shirt back on. . . ‘ And I’ve got blinds in my flat! I’m not walking around going, “Hi everybody.” So that was quite weird. I get odd presents, too. I get strange letters where people. . .  I won’t go into details actually, because I think to air the weirdness is also to give it life and breath, and I think it’s better that it kind of walks away.

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You tried to meet with Julian Assange for your next project, The 5th Estate , but he refused. Why do you think he did that? That’s definitely a question that Julian should answer. My instinct would be that he thought it would mean he was condoning a project that he doesn’t give his support to – and that’s no secret. A lot of the film will address WikiLeaks, which achieved an extraordinary revolution in modern media, the transparency of information. And that’s not a bad thing: we need to look at how these structures and the hypocrisies evolved. They tell us what to do, they take our tax money and do with it what they please, and then behave immorally. The good work that was done by that organization is celebrated as much as examined in the film. Hopefully he’ll get to see it somehow. I don’t think he’ll jump up and down and give it his full support, because I don’t think he wants any film being made about him right now.

If given any opportunity, what role would you play next? Alan Turing . That’s the person I’m playing after Sherlock ‘s third season finishes. Turing is one of the biggest unsung heroes of our day – he basically built the origins of the computer. His homosexuality was exposed in the fifties, a horrendously intolerant time in our history. But his intelligence was how we won the second World War, it is as simple as that. He did it. He cracked the enigma code . This is going to be an exploration of his quiet, unique and difficult personality, sure, but mainly it’ll introduce this man to a new generation who haven’t heard about his exploits before.

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Benedict Cumberbatch

• Born July 19 , 1976 · Hammersmith, London, England, UK
• Birth name Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch
• Height 6′ (1.83 m)
• Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch was born and raised in London, England. His parents, Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton (born Timothy Carlton Congdon Cumberbatch), are both actors. He is a grandson of submarine commander Henry Carlton Cumberbatch, and a great-grandson of diplomat Henry Arnold Cumberbatch CMG. Cumberbatch attended Brambletye School and Harrow School. Whilst at Harrow, he had an arts scholarship and painted large oil canvases. It's also where he began acting. After he finished school, he took a year off to volunteer as an English teacher in a Tibetan monastery in Darjeeling, India. On his return, he studied drama at Manchester University. He continued his training as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art graduating with an M.A. in Classical Acting. By the time he had completed his studies, he already had an agent. Cumberbatch has worked in theatre, television, film and radio. His breakthrough on the big screen came in 2004 when he portrayed Stephen Hawking in the television movie Hawking (2004) . In 2010, he became a household name as Sherlock Holmes on the British television series Sherlock (2010) . In 2011, he appeared in two Oscar-nominated films - War Horse (2011) and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) . He followed this with acclaimed roles in the science fiction film Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) , the Oscar-winning drama 12 Years a Slave (2013) , The Fifth Estate (2013) and August: Osage County (2013) . In 2014, he portrayed Alan Turing in The Imitation Game (2014) which earned him a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, British Academy of Film and Television Arts and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Cumberbatch was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2015 Birthday Honours for his services to the performing arts and to charity. Cumberbatch's engagement to theatre and opera director Sophie Hunter, whom he has known for 17 years, was announced in the "Forthcoming Marriages" section of The Times newspaper on November 5, 2014. On February 14, 2015, the couple married at the 12th century Church of St. Peter and St. Paul on the Isle of Wight followed by a reception at Mottistone Manor. They have three sons, Christopher Carlton (born 2015), Hal Auden (born 2017), and Finn (born 2019). - IMDb Mini Biography By: Kad
• Spouse Sophie Hunter (February 14, 2015 - present) (3 children)
• Children Christopher Carlton Cumberbatch Hal Auden Cumberbatch Finn Cumberbatch
• Parents Wanda Ventham Timothy Carlton
• Relatives Henry Carlton Cumberbatch (Grandparent) Tracy Peacock (Half Sibling) Tracie Bennett (Half Sibling)
• Deep bass-baritone voice
• His parents Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham also played his character's parents on Sherlock (2010) .
• His character Sherlock Holmes' warm relationship with Mrs. Hudson is influenced by Cumberbatch's own real-life relationship with Una Stubbs , as she is good friends with his mother and she has seen him grow up.
• Has central heterochromia as well as sectoral heterochromia, the groovy but harmless genetic mutation that his friend James McAvoy describes in X-Men: First Class (2011) . Central heterochromia is where each eye has multiple colors - in his case, each has a different but nearly identical combination of blue, green and gold. Sectoral heterochromia is where one eye has a spot (or sector) of different coloration; his right eye has a brown freckle of color that, while small, is typical of sectoral heterochromia.
• His voice has been creatively described by journalist Caitlin Moran as a jaguar hiding in a cello. According to a film critic, his voice is so sepulchrally resonant, that it could have been synthesized from the combined timbres of Ian McKellen , Patrick Stewart and Alan Rickman holding an elocution contest down a well. The "jaguar hiding in a cello" comparison apparently also clicked with the creative people at Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC. Cumberbatch voiced several commercials for Jaguar cars.
• Lost a notable amount of weight for his role as Sherlock Holmes, his goal being to portray Holmes as a character with such high intelligence that it manifests itself in a physical, "mind-over-matter" sort of way.
• [on Stephen Hawking ] He's such a presence and you have to really know what you want to say to him or ask him because it takes such a huge, phenomenal effort for him to communicate with you. You think, "I really don't want to waste this man's time." I was myself rather than thinking, "I'm a stupid actor; how on earth can I impress someone like this? I don't know what to say to make me feel worthy of playing this man.".
• Cumberbatch - it sounds like a fart in a bath, doesn't it? What a fluffy old name. I can never say it on a Monday morning. When I became an actor, Mum wasn't keen on me keeping it.
• I am very flattered. I have also become a verb as in "I have cumberbatched the UK audience" apparently. Who knows, by the end of the year I might become a swear word too! It's crazy and fun and very flattering.
• It's the standard actors' joke - "What are you doing after this?" "Oh, if Spielberg doesn't call then I'm going to go on holiday." But a week after I'd said that, I got the call to say I had the job. It's one of those moments you never forget - I just fell off my chair. Which is not a good start to the horseriding.
• [on being invited by Madonna to her London home to discuss playing Duke of Windsor (aka "Edward VIII") in W.E. (2011) ] I'd whizzed round on my bike and thought we were going to have a read-through and a chat, but she wanted a full-on dress rehearsal... So I ended up in a suit and tie with Madonna operating the camera herself.
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) - $7,500,000 + box-office bonus
• Doctor Strange (2016) - $5,500,000

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