Star Trek Into Darkness Director Not Ducking "Wrath of Khan" Talk

J. J. Abrams, director of the upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness, knows that the second installment in a Star Trek film franchise has historically been an important one. And while he's steadfastly maintained that Benedict Cumberbatch is playing character called John Harrison and not, as many have guessed, Khan Noonien Singh, that doesn't mean he's discounting the influence that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan has on the conversation surrounding his film. "I do think that by default this a deeper movie. It's certainly a bigger movie because the first one was kind of the origin story which is great because it's so easy. You just introduce people and yet now they know each other so it has to go deeper," Abrams told Crave Online. "Honestly, it's never easier the next time, ever, for anything. You always think, 'Oh, I've done that, it'll be easier the next time.' No, it's harder the next time. But it's important that every character need to be in the story, otherwise they shouldn't be. But I wouldn't say it was easier." Asked to respond directly to theories that sprang up from an eerily familiar scene depicted in the Star Trek Into Darkness teaser, the director acknowledged, "Well, I would say that you've got to see the movie to see. I don't want to give away what that is, but we've all seen Wrath of Khan. With one or two exceptions, we're not idiots. We are aware of the movie. I love Wrath of Khan." Star Trek Into Darkness will be in theaters on May 17.