With the trailer out why are they keeping the villains ID secret?

I would say yes.
And if I'm somehow wrong and we don't find out from these, we will know within the next couple of months when the prequel comics & more promos come.

We were having the exact same conversations back in 2008-2009 when we still didn't know who Bana was playing and before those trailers started airing.

 

The majority of the paying audience for this film is NOT people like us who frequent Star Trek internet forums, read Star Trek comics, and take notice of action figures. Instead, they are just the average movie-going public who will be seeing Star Trek next May just because it looks like it could be a fun movie.

That sizable audience of average movie-goers will probably be blissfully unaware of the villain's identity until next May -- and some may not even know until they actually see the film.

 

Exactly. Even mainstream media like Entertainment Weekly have been running articles speculating about the villains and the mysteries of the plot . . . .

 

Doing some random Googling, I've just read a couple of very poorly reseached articles online saying the teaser trailer has confirmed the baddie to be Khan

http://www.christianpost.com/news/n...railer-sequel-better-than-first-watch--86256/

Clearly they went on faith!

 

^ Not only is it Khan, we are also in uproar about it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...quel-copies-Wrath-Khan.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

 

Looking at Trek Movie's archives, I have determined that the fans knew that the Romulan Nero was the villain by mid-summer 2008. This was less than a year away from the premiere of Star Trek. Now, we have less time before the next film opens, approximately six months, and we don't know who the villain will be or his race.

Lacking alien-ness doesn't automatically make him human. There have been humanoid species, like Garth's people, who look on the exterior like us. The script makes it clear that Garth is not human - he refers to Kirk's species as Earth people. He never addressed himself as a human.

 

^He could have been born on a human colony.

 

yeah but ST09 was originally planned for xmas 2008 so that would've been 6 months in advance of release too...

 

I'm pretty sure we knew in February/March 2008 that the release had been pushed to May 2009...

 

But why do we need to know any of that yet? What difference does it make?

Just so we'll have something to debate on-line? Or idle curiousity?

We'll find out when we find out. No big deal.

It's not like it's going to affect my Christmas shopping or anything . . .

 

Maybe. Like you said, it's never made clear. I always just took the "Earth people" line as a part of his madness and a way to show that he had sided with the other patients at the asylum and separated himself from Starfleet.

 

The issue is murkier than I thought. We have examples of humanoids calling humans Earth people. We have examples of humans calling themselves as Earth people. So, Garth of Izar could be a humanoid or a human. He further refers to Shakespeare as an "Earth man". Would a human colonist refer to Shakespeare in this way? (The last usage of this phrase appeared in the episode "Justice".)

 

When he called Shakespeare an Earth man wasn't he talking to Marta though? I don't know. I'm not necessarily disagreeing that he's alien. Considering he's introduced as being insane it's hard to take anything he says seriously either way.

 

It was late August/early September we first got the rumours that Trek XI's villain was going to be a Romulan. When Eric Bana was cast it was confirmed that the character was named Nero. However, Abrams sat on confirming Nero was Romulan awhile. As of October 10, 2008 we were still only guessing Nero would be a Romulan.

Hell, that thread is practically identical to what we're saying now, only that's about XI.

 

That's great.

As to Garth, if you grow up on some colony and your parents grew up there and you are far removed from Earth who possibly is seen as giving your colony nothing you are not going to consider yourself an Earth person.

 

I loved this bit: