‘Star Trek’ Finally Fixes a 60-Year-Old Franchise Mistake Thanks to One Casting Choice

September 8 marked the anniversary of the first Star Trek episode airing on television, launching one of the most successful and iconic multimedia franchises of all time. For the franchise’s 59th anniversary, a scripted podcast focusing on the villain Khan Noonien Singh began airing on various podcast platforms, as well as on the official Star Trek YouTube page. In addition, the series has cast Lost actor Naveen Andrews as the title role.

Andrews’ casting is a particularly significant development, as he is only the second actor of South-Asian descent to play the character, following a brief cameo by Desmond Stevens, who portrayed the child version of Khan in a scene in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Andrews is also the first actor of Indian descent to play Khan Noonien Singh, who is canonically Indian in the franchise and was identified as “a Sikh from the northern region of India” in his very first appearance. While Andrews might only be voicing Khan in an audio format, hopefully he will someday get to embody the character in live-action and correct a mistake the franchise has made with Khan since the beginning.

The Origins of Khan in ‘Star Trek’

Paramount

Khan first appeared in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Space Seed.” Played by the legendary Ricardo Montalbán, Khan is part of a genetically engineered superior race of super soldiers who attempt to conquer the planet in what the franchise labels the Eugenics Wars. Khan only appeared in one episode of the original series, but would return in the 1982 feature film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, with Montalbán reprising his role. Khan’s status in the critically acclaimed film, as well as his actions leading to Spock’s death, helped cement him as an iconic Star Trek villain.

Montalbán is phenomenal in the role of Khan, and much of the character’s lasting legacy is rooted in his performance. Yet he was born in Mexico to Spanish immigrant parents, meaning he is not an authentic or accurate pick for Khan’s Indian heritage. In 1967, Hollywood commonly cast actors outside the ethnicity of the character, often leading non-white actors to portray multiple non-white ethnicities. It certainly was not a good look, and viewed through a modern lens, it is problematic on many levels. However, at the time, it was largely about how many non-white actors got work, since nearly every role was centered on what was perceived as the default norm: white.

This is what makes Montalbán’s playing of Khan so complicated. He was a revolutionary actor in his own right for the time period, breaking barriers at a time when Hollywood offered very few leading roles to Latino actors. His depiction of Khan felt progressive at the time, but as times change, what was once progressive becomes dated. Montalbán can be a great Khan who broke down barriers for Latino actors. Still, it is also worth noting that it is wrong to cast a Spanish actor to play an Indian character, just as it would be wrong to cast an Indian actor to play a character of Spanish descent. Star Trek is a franchise that continually grows and evolves with the times, and one would think that in the 21st Century, the franchise would be more attuned to this. That wasn’t the case, however.

Whitewashing Khan in ‘Star Trek’

Paramount Pictures

J.J. Abrams decided to make Khan the primary antagonist for his 2013 film Star Trek Into Darkness, the sequel to his 2009 reboot. The film cast Benedict Cumberbatch in the role. Fans had already pegged it to be Khan, given that Benicio del Toro was the first rumored actor for the villain. Casting an actor of Latino descent to play a Star Trek villain led many to assume it would be Khan in this new timeline, and they were correct in that assumption. Despite fans knowing years in advance that Cumberbatch would be playing Khan, the movie’s marketing and the first half of the film itself keep his identity a mystery.

When the film finally reveals that he is Khan, it obviously raises the fact that they cast a white British actor to play the role of a character who is supposed to be from India. This is made worse by the fact that the movie initially considered Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro to play Khan. The filmmakers never seemed to consider an actor of Indian descent, but instead an actor who would remind audiences of Ricardo Montalbán. It still falls back on the uncomfortable notion of casting any brown-skinned actor to play other non-white ethnicities, which was bad in 1967 and unacceptable in 2013.

Then there is the giant whitewashing elephant in the room. Since this is supposed to be the same Khan that Kirk finds in Botany Bay in Star Trek: The Original Series, but in a different reality, the explanation for why Khan not only looked so drastically different but also white was explained in a prequel tie-in comic. The comic reveals that Admiral Marcus, who discovered Khan in Botany Bay in this timeline, had Khan undergo facial and vocal surgery to conceal his identity. In effect, the story reveals how Khan is literally whitewashed.

It’s also not like they couldn’t have cast an actor of Indian descent to play Khan. The current Khan actor, Naveen Andrews, starred in Lost, which was produced by Star Trek director J.J. Abrams and created by Star Trek Into Darkness writer Damon Lindelof. He already had a working relationship with the creative team. The perfect Khan was right there.

The decision to cast Benedict Cumberbatch was widely controversial. Star Trek Into Darkness co-writer Roberto Orci tried to defend the change, saying:

Basically, as we went through the casting process and we began honing in on the themes of the movie, it became uncomfortable for me to support demonizing anyone of color, particularly any one of Middle Eastern descent or anyone evoking that. One of the points of the movie is that we must be careful about the villain within us, not some other race.

This certainly is, on its face, a reasonable defense. Not wanting to paint an actor of color as a terrorist is a good call, but then it raises the question of why bother making this villain Khan? It didn’t need to be Khan, and Star Trek Into Darkness is often criticized for its decision to include Khan because the dramatic reveal of his identity in the movie holds no significance for the main characters, as they’ve never encountered him before. It is purely for the audience.

If Star Trek Into Darkness wanted to tell a story about Starfleet taking on terrorism, specifically a threat from within, but wanted to avoid any particularly racially charged optics, they could have created their own original character or even retrofitted a previous Star Trek: The Original Series villain like Gary Mitchell (“Where No Man Has Gone Before”) or Ben Finney (“Court Martial”), both of whom have ties to the Federation. The filmmakers instead opted for Khan because he was a well-known name, but didn’t consider the broader implications of the story they were telling. In an attempt not to portray a character of South-Asian descent in a negative light, they ultimately whitewashed the character entirely.

Authentic Casting for Khan in 2025

ABC 

After Star Trek Into Darkness, the franchise’s stewards appear determined to correct decades of neglecting the character’s heritage by choosing more authentic casting. This first began in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds with the reveal of La’An Noonien-Singh, a descendant of Khan, played by Christina Chong. Chong is of both English and Chinese descent. Then, in the episode “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” a child version of Khan is played by Desmond Sivan, who was the first actor of South Asian descent to play the character.

This now brings us to Naveen Andrews voicing Khan in an audio drama, one set in the 20 years between Star Trek and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Khan was originally intended to be a miniseries or animated project, but was reformatted into an audio drama. While it might not be the same as seeing the actor play him on screen, it is a step in the right direction. Hopefully, it might lead to Andrews playing Khan in live-action, possibly in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds or even the upcoming Starfleet Academy, either through some time-travel or Holodeck mechanic.

While Star Trek has developed a bad habit of essentially doing in-universe remakes of popular episodes from The Original Series, as Strange New Worlds‘ third season penultimate episode basically retreads the plot of the Kirk/Gorn episode “Arena.”, the chance to revisit Khan and tell an untold part of his story feels too good to pass up. It might have taken the franchise 58 years, but Star Trek has finally cast an accurate Khan Noonien Singh.