Indeed. Fans treat Khan as the top shelf level villain, TWOK as the best film, and people are surprised that Hollywood would return to that well?What is the most prolific things fans were saying after 2009?
"Will Khan be in the next movie?" - "Who should play reboot Khan?" - "I hope they don't put Khan in the next movie"
Well, the simple answer is that the writers, including Damon Lindelöf, wanted Khan for the beginning, and worked on a way to include Khan in a story that made sense. So they wrote up the draft and look to see that story would work with another villain in that place. Then they agreed that Khan worked and went from there.Maybe Marc Cushman will do a history of the making of the JJ's and we can find out why they went all Khan on us.