With Paramount needing a more "Guardians of the Galaxy" feel to the upcoming 'Star Trek' instalment, 'Fast and Furious 6' director Justin Lin seemed perfect at the helm. This is an uneasy change, however, for Trekkies who felt that J.J. Abrams' box office hit 2009 'Star Trek' and 'Star Trek Into Darkness' deviated quite a bit from the original elements of the franchise. Fears certainly seem justified if the new trailer, released in theatres with the opening of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens', is to be basis.
While true-blue Trekkies were left unsettled by the action-packed treatment of the first two Star Trek films, the general public loved the change. Abrams says of 'Into Darkness': "...I was trying to preserve the fun for the audience, and not just tell them something that the characters don't learn for 45 minutes into the movie, so the audience wouldn't be so ahead of it.
"I felt like, in a weird way, it was a little bit of a collection of scenes that were written by my friends - brilliantly talented writers - who I somehow misled in trying to do certain things... Thank God I had the cast that we have, who are so unbelievably fun to watch. And an incredible new villain in Benedict Cumberbatch...
"But I feel like it didn't work as well as it could have had I made some better decisions before we started shooting." Cumberbatch played Khan in the film.
The question remains however if fandom fears are justified in the new 'Star Trek' film being a space muscle fest version of 'Fast and Furious'.
Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty - and who co-wrote the screenplay with 'Big Love''s Doug Jung, John D. Payne, 'Hellfire''s Patrick Mackay and 'Star Trek' and 'Star Trek Into Darkness' Roberto Orci - assures followers that the new trailer does not reflect the full essence of what to expect in 'Star Trek Beyond'.
Pegg was quite vocal in expressing his own dislike of the trailer: "I didn't love it, because I know there's a lot more to the film. There's a lot more story, and a lot more character stuff, and a lot more what I would call "Star Trek" stuff."
At the very least, given the buzz already surrounding the film long before its June 2016 release, things will be anything but boring. 'Star Trek Beyond' will feature Idris Elba (Krall), Sofia Boutella, Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty), Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Karl Urban (Bones), Anton Yelchin (Chekov), Deep Roy (Keenser), John Cho (Sulu).
