Star Trek Beyond‘s teaser trailer is an absolute riot. It’s a fast-paced, action-packed preview of next year’s sci-fi extravaganza that’s absolutely 100% the product of franchise newcomer Justin Lin. Previously at the helm of the Fast & Furious series, Lin’s fingerprints are all over the teaser. Slight touches here and there make nods to his resume highlights: the motorbike scene in particular a massive shout-out to the petrolhead saga. His and J.J. Abrams’ styles are like night and day, and that’s not the only change on the way.
Lin recently revealed a ton of new intel on the upcoming movie to /Film. It’s a fantastic read that we’d recommend checking out in its entirety. However, one comment that roused attention came after the director was asked about the death cure.
[zergpaid]Conjured from Khan’s blood at the end of Into Darkness, its existence essentially makes humans in that world immortal. And therefore, it removes some of the thrills from the gang’s exploits. Will it be a part of the film, though? According to Lin, it sounds like the creative team weren’t too concerned with bringing it back:
“I don’t know if we’re leaving it behind. And Simon and Doug and I definitely have had some, spent some time on that. But at the same time I feel like this, Star Trek’s been around 50 years. And I’m excited to be a part of it, but I’m also excited to be a participant, but hopefully to see where it’s gonna go. And I think every filmmaker comes on has a different point of view. And it’s a big universe that could support many different points of views and journeys and adventures. And so I totally embrace kind of what J.J. brought ahead of me because he put, without him, this whole group wouldn’t have been together. So I’m always very kind of, I’m definitely very appreciative of that. And to have the opportunity to be able to kind of build on that, I think it’s something that we, it’s definitely now exists. I think the people that really care, you can’t ignore that. But at the same time, do we address that? I don’t discount it. Like we don’t sit there and say it doesn’t exist. It’s part of this universe now.”
And what about the rest of the movie? For example, Carol Marcus becomes a member of the team at the end of Into Darkness but won’t be making an appearance in Beyond. Will she or indeed Khan be addressed?
“We pick [the crew] up about two and a half years after the end of Into Darkness. But there was many iterations where we did go and explore. At the end of the day, I just felt like we’re two and a half years in. What we shot and what’s gonna be in theaters, quantity wise it’s quite a bit. But then to be honest, I actually had even more beyond that. So that’s something that we definitely talked about and worked on. In the presentation of this film, it didn’t quite fit in.”
It’s a relief to hear that Lin is skipping over certain aspects of the previous film. That’s not to say Into Darkness was terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but there were a few too many moments that required one’s disbelief to be suspended. And that’s saying something for a sci-fi movie. Still, Star Trek Beyond is shaping up like a rollicking good blockbuster that will hopefully learn a lesson or two from its predecessor.
Catch the sequel when it opens on July 22, 2016.
