There are few villains in science fiction who could pull off a bob and a rather fetching scoop neck sweater, but then, few loom as large as Khan Noonien Singh. First portrayed by Ricardo Montalban in Star Trek: The Original Series, the genetically engineered tyrant was soon cemented in pop culture and has remained one of the franchise’s most enduring antagonists. It’s no surprise then that this iconic villain would be a figure modern Star Trek projects are keen to return to, after all, there’s a lot there to unpick. And, thanks to the renewed interest in the franchise brought about by new series, much to either the delight or consternation of fans, this most legendary of villains is seemingly now being reframed for a new generation.
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Between Strange New Worlds and the brand-new scripted podcast Star Trek: Khan, nearly 60 years after his first appearance, it seems Khan’s story is far from over. Both projects expand Khan’s mythology in surprising new ways, but with some major retcons. From tying him to 21st-century Earth in a new timeline, to turning him into a far more complex and tragic figure, these projects show how in 2025 Khan’s legacy is still being rewritten and just how much room there still is to reinterpret this beloved character nearly six decades later.
How Strange New Worlds Retconned Khan’s Origins
By virtue of the inclusion of security officer La’an Noonien-Singh, a direct descendant of Khan, Strange New Worlds made a bold statement that it wasn’t afraid to play with canon. Given La’an’s backstory and placement in the timeline, it seems most likely she is a descendant of a child of Khan’s conceived before he was placed in cryosleep and subsequently awoken centuries later by Kirk and co, banished to Ceti Alpha V, and later killed. While extended media has explored the fate of Khan’s followers and suggested he had a son (Joachim), these stories are not considered official canon.
While there is no reason Khan couldn’t potentially have already fathered children during the Eugenics Wars before his defeat, his having children is never addressed in The Original Series episode “Space Seed” or Wrath of Khan, but perhaps he simply wasn’t aware of them. Given La’an may still be alive during the events of “Space Seed,” or indeed Wrath of Khan, this also leaves open the possibility of her one day meeting her famous ancestor in real time! It’s likely a story for extended media to tackle, but it’s fun to imagine.
The Season 2 episode of Strange New Worlds, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” delivered one of the show’s boldest retcons yet, even if it did offer a canonical explanation. A Romulan temporal agent attempts to, and partially succeeds in, altering the Prime Timeline, pushing the Eugenics Wars (which originally took place in the 1990s) into the 21st century. When La’an time-travels back in time to preserve the timeline, she is shocked to discover the child version of her infamous ancestor at the Noonien-Singh Institute for Cultural Advancement – at this stage, he’s just a young boy growing up in 21st-century Toronto.
This retcon reframed Khan’s place in Star Trek history and had ripple effects across canon. In The Original Series, Khan was a relic of Earth’s past—an artifact of the Eugenics Wars frozen in cryosleep until Kirk’s Enterprise awakened him. By shifting his timeline and the Eugenics Wars a little later, Strange New Worlds shows Khan not as a distant boogeyman of the past, but as a child whose life and destiny have been shaped by arguably cruel genetic experiments and meddling from the future. It was a bold choice, allowing the show to tackle the story of Khan from a new angle while also modernizing Star Trek’s timeline for contemporary audiences.
This image of Khan as an innocent child might have lulled us slightly into a false sense of security; however, as this year’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, showed us, in a roundabout way, what Khan is capable of. Episode 8, “Four and a half Vulcans,” although predominantly a comedy episode, made all too clear why La’an has always feared the more evil, calculating parts of Khan that she believes she also has within her. Though it took the eminently ridiculous circumstance of her turning into a Vulcan, La’an unfortunately showed herself to be just as capable of believing herself superior and doing evil. We can’t help but notice that when plotting to fit the Enterprise with better weapons and even start a war, La’an sounds an awful lot like her ancestor. In fact, in “Space Seed” Khan attempts to hijack the Enterprise, not unlike La’an’s plan to turn the starship into a warship.
La’an’s budding romantic relationship with Spock in this latest series, as well as her connection with Kirk and others, and her ongoing struggles with sharing a name with a famous tyrant, also raises the question of why the TOS bridge crew wouldn’t recognise Khan or remark on having served with and even dated his descendant during the events of “Space Seed or Wrath of Khan.
Star Trek: Khan – Ceti Alpha V Humanizes the Villain
If Strange New Worlds reshaped Khan’s backstory, Star Trek: Khan has begun to redefine his character. The scripted podcast, overseen by Nicholas Meyer (director of The Wrath of Khan), explores the missing years of Khan’s life between “Space Seed” and The Wrath of Khan, chronicling Khan’s exile after Kirk marooned him and his followers on Ceti Alpha V.
Instead of portraying Khan solely as a power-hungry despot, the podcast casts him as a tragic, almost Shakespearean figure. He is shown as a visionary leader and philosopher who actively works to do his best for his people, earning their loyalty through compassion as much as through fear. Far from being a one-dimensional tyrant as it would be easy to mistake him for, Khan comes across as a dedicated ruler who truly believes he is building a paradise for his people in the direst of circumstances.
The story also digs more into his personal life, particularly his romance with Marla McGivers, the disgraced Starfleet officer who joined him in exile. Their love story begins to reframe his eventual descent into mad fury and his vow of revenge as something born from grief at his loss of Marla and anger at Kirk’s treatment of his people from the get-go, rather than just his being intrinsically evil, and starts to give a new perspective on his eventual vendetta against Kirk.
The series questions whether Kirk and the Enterprise crew actually bear the blame for Khan and his followers’ arguably cruel fate and whether the entire thing could have been handled better. Through the unique perspective of historian Dr. Rosalind Lear, the podcast questions whether Kirk knowingly abandoned Khan and the others to an unstable, doomed planet and whether records were deliberately sealed to hide the truth. This reframes the initial exile from a clever act of semi-mercy (for lack of a better option to ensure Khan doesn’t become a threat to humanity again, short of killing or imprisoning him) to a potentially deliberate act of murder, depending on Kirk’s foreknowledge. By suggesting that Khan’s vendetta may have been partly justified, the podcast blurs the line between hero and villain, challenging audiences to reconsider who was really at fault.
Why Khan Still Matters
Rewriting a character as iconic as Khan is risky, but recent retcons prove that Star Trek still has plenty to say where the superhuman is concerned. By altering his origins to fit the franchise’s evolving timeline, Strange New Worlds has made Khan relevant again, tying him in more directly to current Star Trek characters and breathing new life into an otherwise old story. For longtime fans, Khan is no longer just a shadow of Earth’s history—he’s an active presence in the living memory of the 21st century, opening the door for stories that could explore his rise in ways The Original Series never could. And with La’an carrying the weight of his legacy aboard Pike’s Enterprise, Strange New Worlds keeps Khan’s specter alive in subtle but important ways.
Fans of The Original Series and The Wrath of Khan may already have begun to speculate whether Kirk’s treatment of the villain overall was truly justified. Star Trek: Khan deepens Khan’s humanity, showing how love, tragedy, and betrayal shaped his transformation into the vengeful figure fans know from The Wrath of Khan and bringing us the other side of the story, so to speak.
Together, these projects ensure Khan remains more than just a relic of Star Trek’s past. Far from relegated to the annals of Trek history, he is now both a symbol of humanity’s darkest impulses and a tragic leader whose story resonates across decades. For a character who has already stood the test of time, being rewritten twice in one year proves just how powerful—and flexible—Khan Noonien Singh still is.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is streaming now on Paramount+. Star Trek: Khan – Ceti Alpha V is available on audio platforms.
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