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When researching something else, I came across a couple of articles that claimed that there is ultra rare footage of a child in Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, purportedly claimed to be Khan's son.

Kinja.com article with pictures

Archive.org snapshot of birthmoviesdeath

Pictures from the Kinja article:

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enter image description here

(The articles state that the second still next to the Genesis device was just before detonation and death, so understandable why that would be cut).

However, is there an official word on if this was intended to actually be Khan's son, or is this just a random child of the survivors?

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It is a random child according to Nicholas Meyer

Trek Historian John Tenuto states he spoke with Nicholas Meyer upon discovering an on-set photograph of the 'Khan baby'. Tenuto states that writer / director Meyer says that the infant was not Khan's, but shows that Khan's people are capable of reproducing

John: I got a whole slew of new ones [photographs], and I just finished cleaning them and getting them ready and now I'm going to start cataloging them. One of the things that is in here is the 'Khan baby'.

Larry: Oh! Do you know why it was taken out?

John: Yeah, there had been a magazine many years ago that had published a photograph, a very grainy picture of a baby by the Genesis torpedo. And the story in the magazine said that basically, [Larry interupts], yeah, but it was a baby by the torpedo this was a baby by the torpedo as it was detonating. So the idea was, this was Khan's baby, that was sort of what the theme was, right? So, but you're right Larry, there were babies there.

So, I have these photographs, and there are pictures of Nicholas Meyer holding this kid, and he looks, he's got the Khan clothes on, you know, it's not exactly Khan's outfit, but it's Khan's people's clothes, you know? And it's a costume for sure. And then the second cameraman is there, he's trying to film this kid crawling by the torpedo as it's going to detonate, right? So, the original idea was that they were going to basically show a baby, a toddler, by the Genesis torpedo as it explodes. Which would have been horrifically dark. But of course, it's the implication, right? If they have babies on board, they're gonna die on the Reliant. That's the idea. So I have all these, these pictures of them trying to film this moment. So I asked Mr. Meyer about this. So, what happened was, the idea was to show, it's not Khan's kid. It was just to show that Khan's people were reproducing. And he just said the idea just, it didn't work. The idea didn't work. The moment didn't work."

Source: http://trek.fm/the-ready-room/80 - 2 hours 22 minutes into the podcast

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  • Good point @Thunderforge - I was in a hurry to get this in after finding the podcast and conversation. I'll get on that
    – NKCampbell
    Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 21:01
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    @NKCampbell : You were wise to hurry, as you had ninja'ed me to this. ;-) Good job.
    – Praxis
    Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 21:11

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