And they will. The next IDW two-parter is all-new. The other three two-parters, so far, represent a bit of a holding-pattern approach, retelling old TOS stories, since Bad Robot want to be the main storyteller. For now.
Hade it been confirmed that the guy on the leaked photos is Gary Mitchel? Does that mean that the first storyline is nocanon?
No. No comics are canonical. Bad Robot's writing team gave IDW the go-ahead to retell a Gary Mitchell story, which strongly suggests they had no intention of needing that character in the next two movies.
I don't understand why so many people are expecting the movie's antagonist to be an established character. Of the 11 prior Trek movies, only one, TWOK, featured the return of a villain we'd seen before (retconning the newly-created Borg Queen into the events of BoBW doesn't count as a return appearance).
While it may not be Khan, I think Earth's genetic supermen from the 1990's are somehow part of the plot.
I guess because the writers deliberately teased about Khan, Klingons and "a returning character, previously established in Season One of TOS", although they certainly didn't suggest the returning character was the villain. I think they will use the knowledge that they have a third film in the wings to plant a subplot in this film that generates into the main plot of the next.
Indeed. One recurring potential easter egg in the IDW "Ongoing" comic series has been Janice Rand, restored to her originally scripted role in "The Galileo Seven" rejig (Yeoman Mears in TOS).
I don't think they deliberately teased about Khan. I think that tons of reporters were slavering all over them asking "Is it Khan? Huh? Is it? Is it? Aww, c'mon, tell us!" at every opportunity, and every time the filmmakers honestly replied, "We're considering a lot of possibilities but we haven't decided yet," and the reporters were desperate to manufacture the appearance of a story, so they twisted that into FILMMAKERS CONFIRM IT MIGHT BE KHAN! One of the most important rules of defensive newswatching is paying attention to the difference between the interviewees' words and the words the interviewers try to put in their mouths.
As well as the fact that Kurtman and Orci have referenced various novels in the past, and I believe have said they've read the novels, fans are looking for clues wherever they can Plus as I've mentioned a couple of times, Bleeding Cool posted an article a month ago that speculated that we could see clues seeded throughout the ongoing series that might come to play in the film.
I'm talking about when they realized they were dropping the Klingon sequence from the last movie. I'm sure I recall the writers even asked the question on blog sites, "So would you like to see Khan in the next movie?", and then, "Maybe we'll show the Klingons blowing up Khan's sleeper ship."
Oh, come on, that was a joke they made before they had any solid script ideas for the second film, so it certainly doesn't count as "teasing" their actual plans.
I found this from Sep 2010... http://collider.com/star-trek-2-sequel-alex-kurtzman-roberto-orci-khan-klingons/48576/
My own suspicion is that Janice will be getting a relatively minor cameo. The character Alice Eve is to play has been stated to be 'new to canon' which would suggest she isn't Carol, Janice, or any other pre-existing character.
It was reported when she was first cast that Alice Eve would be playing a Vulcan scientist that would also be a love interest for Kirk. This was never confirmed and could have changed in the several months since she was cast.