#john harrison

While I understand that it can be seen as taking a role from a POC and I think he should have just been some rando named John Harrison rather than Khan, I do think it was better, considering the political climate when it came out, that Into Darkness's terrorist and eugenics advocating supremacist was played by a white man. Specifically a British white man. I think it would have gone over like a lead balloon to have a brown man be a terrorist. HOWEVER. There are truly no easy answers here and I am NOT forgiving the whitewashing of a POC character (even though Ricardo Montalban was also playing outside of race by being a Mexican actor portraying an Indian Sikh character, who was given significantly darker makeup for "Space Seed" and a little less but still some for Wrath of Khan) but I can see why they may have been compelled to do it (beyond just considerations over the star power that Cumberbatch would bring to the film). John Harrison should have just been some guy and there shouldn't have been all the Khan shit in that movie. But they wanted the nostalgia bait and this is yet more proof that nostalgia wank makes shit worse. Alas.

Birch: He didn’t. I read it in his diary.

STAR TREK: Into Darkness - part 6

Ricardo Montalban and Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan Noonien Singh.