Today marks the third anniversary of the untimely death of Anton Yelchin in 2016. As a tribute to the much-missed actor, the official Star Trek Twitter account has shared a moving poster in the star’s memory.
“Remembering @StarTrekMovie’s very own Chekov #AntonYelchin,” the tweet says, along with a photo of Yelchin and the hashtags #StarTrek, #StarTrekFamily and #StarTrekRemembers.
Remembering @StarTrekMovie’s very own Chekov, #AntonYelchin. #StarTrek #StarTrekFamily #StarTrekRemembers pic.twitter.com/tgyKVzAnEr
— Star Trek (@StarTrek) June 19, 2019
Yelchin was a hugely prolific actor, with his career encompassing 68 credits across film and TV, but it’s fair to say that he’s best known and beloved for his turn as Ensign Pavel Chekov in the three Kelvin timeline Star Trek movies. He always made the most of his screentime in 2009’s Star Trek, 2013’s Star Trek into Darkness and 2016’s Star Trek Beyond and he’ll be much missed if Paramount ever makes Star Trek 4 or if the Kelvin cast is reunited for Quentin Tarantino’s R-rated Star Trek movie.
Yelchin passed away on June 19th, 2016 due to a tragic accident in the driveway of his home. As he was just 27 years of age and at the prime of his career, there was an enormous outpouring of grief from his co-stars and colleagues in Hollywood and his many fans worldwide.
A documentary looking at his life, titled Love, Antosha and featuring words from several of his Trek cast members such as Chris Pine and John Cho, is scheduled for release in theaters on August 2nd. The idea for the film came from Yelchin’s parents, Irina and Viktor, inspired by a conversation they had with their son’s one-time co-star Jon Voight.
Speaking of Pine, the Captain Kirk actor recently remembered his late friend at a 10th anniversary event for Star Trek. We’ve previously been assured that Yelchin won’t be replaced as Chekov in future installments and the character, at least in this incarnation of the franchise, will be rested in his honor.
