Star Trek Into Darkness trailer sees Cumberbatch boldly go bad

Benedict Cumberbatch is the undoubted star of the first trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness, beaming down today.

The Sherlock star is the villain in the new film, the sequel to the 2009 Star Trek reboot. Once again written and directed by JJ Abrams and starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Simon Pegg, Star Trek Into Darkness tells the continuing adventures of the crew of the Starship Enterprise as they boldly go in 3D and on IMAX screens.

There's a Japanese version of the trailer with an intriguing moment added to the end -- press play below to energise the Japanese trailer and see Cumberbatch aiming his best gravell-y trailer voice at Kirk and crew, including another Brit, Alice Eve.

The first Dark Knight Rises-style poster shows Cumberbatch standing over a ravaged London -- you can see the Gherkin and St Paul's as well as various future-y skyscrapers. But the burning question among fans is the identity of Cumberbadguy: rumours linger that he plays Khan, the genetically engineered dictator who troubled William Shatner in the original series and Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan.

But with his icy eyes, Starfleet uniform and apparent city-toppling power, we could be looking at a big-screen outing for Gary Mitchell. Mitchell was an old friend of Captain Kirk who acquired telekinetic powers in the second pilot episode of the original series, Where No Man Has Gone Before (the first pilot episode was titled The Cage and featured Spock but not Kirk, trivia fans).

Star Trek Into Darkness is released in May. If you can't wait to get your darkness on, you can start trekkin' with the first nine minutes of the film playing on IMAX screens before screenings of the The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, released on 13 December.

Are you excited about Star Trek Into Darkness? Will Sherlock steal the show? Set phasers to comment or beam up to our Facebook page.