Nordling here.
Yep, Gary Mitchell, of "Where No Man Has Gone Before," if Karl Urban's interview with SFX is to be believed. Or, to quote him, "He’s awesome, he’s a great addition, and I think his Gary Mitchell is going to be exemplary." Sorry, Karl, you got to be more careful talking to press if you're in a J. J. Abrams movie.
That said, I think Mitchell's a perfect character for Cumberbatch to play, although I'm curious as to whether or not the movie will follow the same storyline as the episode. In "Where No Man Has Gone Before," Mitchell, an old friend of Kirk's, suddenly gets vast telepathic powers and begins to consider himself a god. Kirk is forced to dispatch his good friend to prevent Mitchell from taking over the Enterprise and presumably the galaxy.
Is this a smoke screen? I don't know. And really, does it matter? Why hide who Cumberbatch is playing unless it's an established character? If he was someone new, there wouldn't be all this runaround. So, even if he isn't playing Mitchell, he's playing someone we recognize. At one point I even supposed it was the Squire of Gothos, but if the photos we've seen are accurate, I don't remember the Squire needing to be in any fight scenes.
So - Cumberbatch isn't Khan, and of course all of this has to be taken with several grains of salt considering the misinformation that we've gotten so far. Honestly, I think Abrams would be better off not trying to keep things so close to the chest because when news does break it starts to be less a news moment and more of a "Gotcha Abrams!" moment. Still, it's good casting, and if true I can't wait to see those glittery eyes on Cumberbatch. As my friend Megan is so fond of saying (and about a million posters on Pinterest attest), he's quite dreamy.
