Star Trek: Strange New Worlds link to Khan confirmed

Finally, a link to Khan has been confirmed for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

In a piece of news that should come as no surprise, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showrunner Akiva Goldsman confirmed that yes, there is a connection to the character of La’an Noonien-Singh and the villanious Khan Noonien-Singh. According to The Hollywood Reporter, La’an, who will be portrayed by Christina Chong, is related to Khan, but he didn’t reveal exactly how.

Though Goldsman did go on to say that “the deal will unfold,” which presumably means we will learn La’an’s backstory over the course of the season (or seasons). But he added that this wasn’t something that was done to be splashy. They don’t want to draw viewers into the show just by throwing in a character’s name.

"“We don’t want to bring folks into the show to be splashy. We want to dig deeply into characters that are part of our ensemble and then, obviously, we’re open to getting our arms … but right now, what you see is what you get.”"

How much of Khan will be present in this new character on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds?

The timeline of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is set before Captain James T. Kirk took command of the Enterprise, and therefore, before he and his crew located the Botany Bay and Khan and his nefarious crew. Khan’s ship was launched from Earth in 1996, meaning if La’an is related to the merciless villain, she might know something about his ancestry, but it’s much more likely that it’ll be too far into the past for her to know much about it.

That’s not surprising, considering most of us don’t know that much about our ancestors from centuries past unless we do a deep dive. Even then, back in 1996, according to Star Trek time, records were, most likely, not kept as well as they are in the 23rd century. So La’an could be totally oblivious to the malicious intentions of her grandfather many times removed. It will be interesting to see the information come to light, if that’s the path Strange New Worlds takes.