Cho and Yelchin had acted together in all three Star Trek films since the 2009 reboot by Abrams.
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The recent death of 27-year-old Anton Yelchin left Star Trek fans reeling, both for the sake of the actor and what his loss means for the fate of his character, Pavel Chekov.
“I would say there’s no replacing him”, Abrams told the Toronto Sun.
Speaking to WENN at the movie’s United Kingdom premiere last week (end15Jul16), Spock actor Zachary Quinto said, “Losing Anton is unthinkable for all of us and I think it brought us closer together through the bonding of grieving his loss”. “I have thought about [killing the character off], we’re working on it, and it’s too early to talk about it”.
Star Trek Beyond was his last movie appearance and, according to reports, Beyond has not even hit theaters yet and hard core Trekkies are already wondering about his character’s fate.
Chris Pine, Sofia Boutella and Anton Yelchin in “Star Trek Beyond”; Paramount (NEW YORK) – On Monday morning’s installment of The View, Star Trek Beyond stars Simon Pegg and Zoe Saldana remembered their fallen co-star Anton Yelchin, who died June 19 after a freak auto accident outside his home.
Quinto, who plays Spock in the series, also said a few words for the late Leonard Nimoy, who died earlier this year. J.J. Abrams and Lindsey Weber will produce through Bad Robot Productions. “We had no idea just how devastating events would become”.
“Star Trek Beyond” also stars Simon Pegg – who acted as co-writer – Idris Elba, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana and Karl Urban and is out in cinemas on July 22. Time travel, incidentally, would be a nice touch, echoing the original Star Trek IV. The latter is clearly not on the cards so Abrams is looking to honor Yelchin’s memory instead.
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“(Anton) was a great guy, totally fearless”, says his fellow San Fernando Valley boy Chris Pine, whose Capt. James T. Kirk spends the first half of “Beyond” paired-up with Chekov on a hostile alien planet.
