Zachary Quinto Hopes to Play Spock Again

The mythical Star Trek 4 is in the news again this week, and this time it’s because of the vaguest of status updates from actor Zachary Quinto.

Vulture interviewed Quinto last week ahead of the premiere of AMC’s horror miniseries, NOS4A2. In the show, Quinto plays the creepy villain Charlie Manx, who keeps himself young by - wait for it - feeding on the souls of kidnapped children. The role of Charlie Manx is not the first creepy villain he’s played; past roles include Dr Oliver Thredson on American Horror Story: Asylum, and of course, his breakout role as Sylar, the power-stealing serial killer in Heroes. When he was asked what draws him to these roles as villains, Quinto said, “I think, on some level, it serves an important cultural purpose. People need to escape from their lives, and if they’re interested in escaping into worlds that are dark, because they can go into that realm and feel safe and feel like it’s a fantastical way to do it, I’m happy to be a part of those stories. Playing a villain, you can be the receptacle for a lot of frustrations and angers and real-world fears that we’re not able to process as readily.”

Among non-horror fans, Quinto is best known for his role as Spock in the Kelvin Timeline Star Trek films. In the interview, Vulture asked whether Star Trek 4 was in limbo. Quinto replied, “ I don’t know what’s happening with that, and I’m trying to figure out what, if anything, will be the future for it. I feel glad that the franchise is having its own life continuing on [with Star Trek: Discovery] and my hope is that we’ll also get to go back and play those roles again. But there’s no telling right now if it’ll happen or not.”