The Orville’s Victor Garber Still Disappointed by Cut Klingon Star Trek Role

Actor Victor Garber is currently part of a space opera story as Admiral Halsey in The Orville (or ), but he’s still disappointed that his role as a Klingon interrogator got cut from 2009’s Star Trek movie. Garber has a long history of working with Star Trek director J.J. Abrams dating back to Alias. When Abrams had a fun idea for Garber to play in the 2009 film, that of a Klingon interrogator working over villain Nero (Eric Bana), Garber agreed and even learned the Klingon language for the part. But despite all the work he put into the performance, the scene ended up on the cutting room floor, included only as an extra on the film’s home media release.

“Well, it didn’t destroy my relationship with J.J. [Abrams], but pretty close [laughs],” Garber tells CinemaBlend of the cut role, now more than a decade later. “No, it was something where he said, ‘I got a fun idea,’ and whenever any director says that to you, [you go], ‘Fun for who, exactly,’ and then I had to learn Klingon.”

Garber went on to say that he won’t make the same mistake twice. “I was disappointed because it would’ve been fun to be a part of it, and it was hard work. And learning Klingon was something I’ll never, never do again. it wasn’t fun. It was a labor of love because I would do anything J.J. asked.”

The IDW Publishing comic book Star Trek: Nero, a four-issue miniseries by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and David Messina, eventually told the story of Nero’s 20 years as a captive of the Klingons on the Rura Penthe. Those four issues are part of the 400 Star Trek comics IDW has published, which the company will celebrate later this year.

The Klingons of the Kelvin Timeline, the alternate universe established in that 2009 quasi-reboot movie, would eventually reveal themselves in the sequel, 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, sans Garber’s Interrogator’s stylish helmet. The Kelvin Timeline movies have been on pause since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. However, Brian Robbins, head of Paramount Pictures, says the studio is approaching the starting line of the fourth film in the series, with the original trilogy’s cast returning.

“We’re deep into it with J.J. Abrams, and it feels like we’re getting close to the starting line and excited about where we’re going creatively,” Robbins told Variety. “I’m a research nerd, and what the data tells me is that the audience wants that cast in this movie.”