Benedict Cumberbatch has defended the way his character was handled in Star Trek Into Darkness following criticism from director JJ Abrams.

Cumberbatch's character was originally introduced as John Harrison, but was later revealed to be the classic villain Khan. Yesterday (December 4), Abrams said he regretted the decision and wished had been honest about his identity from the start, but in an interview with IGN, the British actor laughed: "What a dickhead. The amount of times we had to lie for him… the amount of times I had to talk about it not being my character!

He added: "No, I love him but I don't know if it was a bad or a good thing… the intention was to have a reveal in the audience that was going to be thrilling. That worked to an extent. Not everybody knew what they were in for when they went into the theatre - for those people it was a good thing. There was a verbal and physical reaction to it, so it kind of works.”

Abrams also recently endorsed Attack The Block filmmaker Joe Cornish as a potential director of Star Trek 3. Abrams will begin shooting on Star Wars, meanwhile, in spring 2014 at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, directing from a script he has co-written with Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi). At present, plot details are unknown and no cast members have been confirmed.