Variety reports that Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez is the "front-runner," to replace Benicio del Toro as the villain in the as yet Untitled Star Trek Sequel
Jordi Molla (Colombiana) is "also in the mix". Both actors are expected to test for the role over the next two days and director J.J. Abrams is said to be interested in making a decision before the end of the week. There may be some issue regarding scheduling with Ramirez, but the trade adds that "Abrams wouldn’t consider any actor if they were unavailable."
While there's no official word and Abrams denied that Kahn is the baddie for the sequel this seems to be the direction the team is going....Khan Noonien Singh is the genetically enhanced human of the 1967 episode of "Star Trek" called Space Seed as well as the big screen sequel Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan played by Ricardo Montalban and in the process solidified himself as the best Trek villain period...
I think it's time for Team Trek to come out with nature of the bad guy role one way or the other--The nature of the biz-Do it so that we can move on....
IGN Movies has fun speculating--If not Kahn then who?....
Alice Eve is in serious talks for a major role as is former "Robocop" star Peter Weller.
Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin and John Cho are all returning to the Final Frontier in their respective roles
Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof wrote the script.
The sequel will be produced by Abrams, Kurtzman, Orci, Lindelof, Bryan Burk, and David Ellison.
The sequel will open on May 17th 2013 and is being shot in 3-D.