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Star Trek reboot series to go beyond Star Trek: Beyond

Star Trek Beyond is just under a year away, so we've collected everything we know so far, in one place, about the third installment of the new generation of Star Trek films.

By Stormy Thu 17 Sep, 2015 2:23 PM - Last Updated: Sun 03 Apr, 2016 11:03 PM
Star Trek Beyond is just under a year away, so we've collected everything we know so far, in one place, about the third installment of the new generation of Star Trek films.

[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]Marking the 50th anniversary of the legendary Star Trek series, Paramount Pictures will unveil the latest movie in the reboot series, Star Trek: Beyond. With less than a year before fans of the U.S.S. Enterprise and her crew boldly go where no one has gone before, there is still more that is not known about the movie than is. Here’s what we know so far.

The movie, slated to hit the big screen in 2D, 3D and 3D IMAX on July 8, 2016, will be the third installment of a reboot series originally directed by J.J. Abrams. Abrams jumped galaxies after the second installment, Star Trek: Into Darkness, moving over to take the helm for the release of the seventh movie in the Star Wars saga. In his stead, Justin Lin was chosen to take over directing duties despite claims his experience was not of the caliber needed for such an iconic film.

The production companies for the movie (obviously for something as huge as Star Trek, you cannot have just one production company) are Skydance Productions, Bad Robot Productions and K/O Paper Products. While some may be wondering why a paper company is producing a movie, the answer is simple. K/O Paper Products is an American television and motion picture production company founded by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci in 2009. They were also on board for Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013). Of course, Bad Robot is owned by J.J. Abrams and Skydance Productions is actually production company based at Paramount Pictures.

Even though he forsook directing duties for the third film and set a course for Tatooine or some other planet in the Star Wars realm, J.J. Abrams has not totally abandoned the Star Trek universe. He is still listed as a producer. In fact, the list of producers for Star Trek: Beyond is almost as long as the list of characters. Also listed as producer is Bryan Burk.
Executive Producers for the movie include Jeffrey Chernov, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Tommy Harper and Robert Orci.

After the sudden departure of Abrams and his band of writers- Roberto Orci, Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne, new writers had to be brought in as well. Those duties were turned over to Doug Jung and Simon Pegg (yes, Scotty). With a nod to the show’s creator, Gene Roddenberry is also listed as one of the writers.

The primary cast has been kept intact, with Chris Pine (James T. Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Karl Urban (Leonard “Bones” McCoy), Simon Pegg (Montgomery “Scotty” Scott), Zoe Saldana (Nyota Uhura), John Cho (Hikaru Sulu) and Anton Yelchin (Pavel Chekov) returning in their roles for the third film.

Sofia Boutella will play a member of a new alien race. Screenshots and clips leaked from the set show Boutella with white skin and hair, with black lines running down her face in a simple pattern. Not much else is known about the character.

Speaking of not knowing anything about a character, the same can be said of Idris Elba’s role in the new movie. Just as it was with Star Trek: Into Darkness, lips have been tight on what type of character Elba will play. The original rumor and general consensus was that Elba would play a Klingon (seeing as how Klingons were introduced to the reboot series in the second installment). That rumor continues to live, despite the fact one of the script’s writers, Simon Pegg, has stated in an interview Elba will definitely not be a Klingon.

A few other announced cast members include Deep Roy (Keenser), Joseph Gatt (Science Officer 0718 ), Joe Taslim and Lydia Wilson.

Speaking of British actress Lydia Wilson, Cinemablend has a few hints at who her character might be. According to their website, the movie will have three new prominent female roles.
While nothing is confirmed, those roles will be a fellow Starfleet captain who gives Captain Kirk a run for his money, the president of the United Federation of Planets, orMcCoy’s ex-wife. Since Wilson is around the same age as most of the returning cast, it is unlikely she would be pegged for the president of Starfleet. It would be much more likely she would play a rival captain or the ex-wife.

A familiar name (at least for movie trivia buffs) is also returning to write and direct the musical score for Star Trek: Beyond. Michael Giacchino, who was also responsible for the soundtrack for Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) and Star Trek (2009), has signed on for the upcoming release as well. While certainly not an exhaustive list, a few other projects Giacchino has worked on over the past few years include Jurrasic World (2015), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), the Toy Story franchise and the Fringe television series (2008-2013).

Yes, you’ve read over 800 words to this point and the plot hasn’t been mentioned a single time. Well, there’s a reason. While we know the crew of the Enterprise will voyage into deep space to seek out new life and new civilizations, we still do not know what will happen to them once they get there. As much fun as it would be to reveal the plot, information about the story line is a closer kept secret than the original formula for Coca-Cola, and that’s kept in a vault in an undisclosed location.

There have been a few hints here and there, although none of them are really of OMG quality (please forgive me for using the term OMG but the hope is that younger readers will appreciate it).

First, Zachary Quinto hinted in an interview with The Telegraph that Spock wouldn’t be spending as much time with Kirk as he did in the previous movies, but instead turning his attention to Karl Urban’s character (McCoy). In the interview, Quinto said,“Those characters are so diametrically opposed that it’ll be nice to see them interacting.”

If the interaction between the two is anything like that of the original cast of Leonard Nimoy and DeForrest Kelly, those scenes should be a welcome addition since one is blunt and calculating and the other more emotionally driven.

Both Quinto and Elba have stated in separate interviews that Spock and Elba’s character will spend some time together on screen as well, although no details were given by either one.

While there is still much to be learned about Star Trek: Beyond, and as time goes by details and trailers and cast members will surely reveal more, there is already one bit of information about a fourth Star Trek reboot movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter in an article on June 26, 2015, both Pine and Quinto are returning as Kirk and Spock for a fourth film.

Written by Mark Berryman | Stormy
4 Comments
Thu 17 Sep, 2015 10:54 PM
Looking forward to the movie. I hope it does well.

Bring on all the haters who think they know better.
Fri 18 Sep, 2015 1:39 AM
Yea, there's not nearly enough info on the movie at this point to form an opinion!
Sun 20 Sep, 2015 12:50 AM
It's Star Trek and I will see it, Critics be damned. That also goes for Star Wars too!
Tue 22 Sep, 2015 8:33 PM
I agree with you on this. I often find the movies I like best were horribly panned by the critics.