No one will be searching for Spock, but set phasers to “that’s actually kind of cool” anyway, because the third installment of the rebooted Star Trek series now has an official title: Star Trek Beyond. Lin revealed the name today via Twitter:
That hugely retro patch and Space Age workman uniform is a particularly nice touch; I’d believe you if you told me it’s actually from the 1960s.
Nodding to Trek’s space race roots with promotion for Star Trek Beyond makes sense of course. The last film in the JJ Abrams version of Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, received a brutal critical drubbing. Among the biggest critiques was how much it didn’t feel like the tv series it’s based on. It didn’t help that before it even came out, word dropped that Abrams was abandoning the franchise for the new Star Wars trilogy. At first, STID co-writer Robert Orci was tapped to replace Abrams, but Paramount eventually opted to part ways with him (like Abrams, Orci stayed on as a producer). The studio finally settled on Fast and Furious mastermind Justin Lin.
It was easy to assume that Lin was hired becaused of his proven track record breathing life into big franchises – coincidentally, he also joined Fast and Furious on its third installment. But people within the production have been vocal that Lin is a major Trekkie, legitimizing his involvement and shoring up Trek bonafides. Star Trek Beyond works similarly, suggesting, at last, the actual exploration at the heart of the franchise.
Filming began in Vancouver on June 25. Directed by Lin, written by Doug Jung and Simon Pegg, produced Abrams, Orci and Bryan Bruk, and exec produced by David Ellison and Dana Goldberg, Star Trek Beyond is scheduled to launch in theaters July 8, 2016.
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