As much as fans have been are clamoring for any early insight into "Star Trek Into Darkness," we have to hand it to director (and world-class secret-keeper) J.J. Abrams for holding strong to his practice of safeguarding his film plots -- and making sure his actors do too.

Proof? No matter how many times we asked, none would give up the true identity of the movie's villain, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. With no strong clues yet about who the sequel's bad guy will be, we turned our attention to some of our favorite "Star Trek" characters. Should we be worried about their fates? Surely Abrams wouldn't actually kill off a fan favorite. Or would he?

MTV News recently caught up with stars Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, and we asked them point-blank if we need to prepare ourselves for a major onscreen loss.

"There's reason to worry, let's say that much," Quinto teased. "The enemy we face in this movie, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, is entirely different than the enemies we've seen this crew face in the past. There's insidiousness and ruthlessness and a fierce intelligence to his character that almost infiltrates and undermines the connectivity of the crew to the degree that the stakes are much higher. He added, "It's much more urgent and there's a lot more at risk, so who knows?"

What we do know so far about "Into Darkness" isn't much, however, fans will soon get a nice tease of some of the film's action with the nine-minute sneak peek of footage set to run before "The Hobbit" at IMAX theaters. But all signs point to the fact that the film might be darker and more intense than the first, especially since Cumberbatch's villain is a devious "terrorist" and all.

Check out everything we've got on "Star Trek Into Darkness."