Star Trek Beyond‘s Idris Elba will be playing Krall, who is *not* a Klingon.
Krall is heard in the new teaser, saying “This is where it begins, Captain. This is where the frontier pushes back!”
Fans have speculated as to what character Elba was playing; a Klingon, a Gorn, a Jem’Hadar. But he is none of these according to Director Justin Lin.
Krall is a member of “new species that we discover in this chapter,” said Lin. He went on to describe what type of character Elba is playing and Krall’s motivations.
“When [talking to Elba] about this character, it wasn’t about this or that; it was about building or having a philosophy or point of view. And I like his character because his character is really challenging the way of the Federation’s philosophy and there are a lot of things that when I was growing up I wanted to see.”
“What would happen if you were going on a five-year journey and you’re trying to also not only explore, but also maybe introduce other people to this way of thinking,” said Lin. “What would that mean? What are the consequences to that? I mean, spreading a philosophy that you believe in that you think is great, are there gonna be any other points of views that’s gonna counter you? And I think that those are the things that I thought of as a kid. And also then as an adult when I watch Star Trek. And I think we got to kind of explore that a little bit [in Star Trek Beyond].
Source: Slashfilm