With Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin and John Cho all returning for the Star Trek sequel we knew there wouldn’t be many new characters introduced. If talks with Benicio Del Toro work out he’ll play the villain, and now it looks like J.J. Abrams wants to add another female character to the mix with the hiring of British actress Alice Eve.
According to Variety Eve is “playing a character that’s believed to be new to the canon”, which has caused speculation that she could be a new love interest for Captain Kirk (Pine). The site mentions Eve “doesn’t yet have a deal in place — but is expected to soon” and the actress competed against Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four) and Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger) for the role.
Alice Eve has appeared in She’s Out Of My League and Sex and the City 2, and will be seen early next year in The Raven alongside John Cusack and Luke Evans. I’m actually quite pleased Eve has landed a high-profile role as she’s come very close to joining some big films over recent years. At one point it was reported that she would be playing Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class but January Jones eventually took the role. She was down to the final two alongside Hayley Atwell for Captain America: The First Avenger, and more recently she was being considered to play Lois Lane in Man of Steel before Amy Adams was cast.
The Star Trek sequel will begin filming next January and will be released by Paramount on May 17th, 2013.
