The upcoming, untitled Star Trek 3 will, appropriate to the series, be venturing bravely into the unknown. As a new writing team that includes one of the film’s stars is tasked with completely reworking the script from scratch, the film will also be going into things with a new director untested in the genre with Justin Lin. Now, in a recent interview, Chekov himself, Anton Yelchin, reveals his take on the new man at the helm.
In an interview with Nuke The Fridge, Anton Yelchin reveals that Star Trek 3 is, indeed, the next film on his performance docket. As he readies himself to reprise the role of Pavel Chekov, Yelchin divulges that he has actually met with the new director, Justin Lin. Based on what’s he’s saying, he seems to be impressed with what Lin brings to the table. According to Yelchin,
I think his ideas are really interesting. He has a way of looking at it that is going to both reinvigorate it and also relate it closer to the kind of ethos of the original series.
Yelchin would also qualify his meeting with Lin by stating that he thinks the new director will do "something really interesting" with the threequel, citing J.J. Abrams’ apparent vote of confidence in the new helmer as proof.
Understandably, there’s a lot of curiosity regarding what Lin, who comes from the high-paced pedigree of the Fast & Furious films will bring to something like Star Trek. A newcomer to the sci-fi genre, Lin’s most notable directorial film efforts are the fourth through sixth entries in the Fast & Furious film series. However, he does have the 2006 James Franco naval drama Annapolis under his belt.
The fit might befuddle fans, but it seems to make sense to the franchise overseers like J.J. Abrams, who clearly brought Lin on board for his abilities to execute a vision while maintaining the intensity, rather than his genre experience. The fact that Lin is also being tasked with the upcoming next entry in the Bourne films is proof of the behind-the-scenes perceptions of his broader skills.
Yet, despite the sci-fi deficit on Justin Lin’s resume, he could very well have a firm grip on the possibly more-old-school direction that the storyline will allegedly take. In fact, there does seem to be some signs that the various ideas Lin discussed with Yelchin reflect the ongoing collaborative process between Lin, the producers and the screenwriting team of Simon Pegg and Doug Jung. Yelchin’s account of Lin’s approach as being "closer to the kind of ethos" of the original show seems to corroborate a recent comment from Simon Pegg, implying that Star Trek 3 would be making an effort to reflect "the spirit of the show."
As much as J.J. Abrams’ current franchise revival has reinvigorated the property and made it more accessible than it’s ever been, the TV show’s essence of exploration of the unknown has definitely taken a backseat. After coming off somewhat of a divisive second entry with 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, it does seem that the Star Trek film franchise may be looking to slow down the eye-gouging intensity just a bit to focus on a storyline with more dramatic values. While a director like Justin Lin might seem to be the exact opposite of what’s needed, he may very well have a profound surprise up his sleeves for the legions of Trekkies.
Star Trek 3 trades muscle car engines for warp cores when it assumes standard orbit at theaters on July 8, 2016.
