Star Trek Beyond is nearly upon us and, while reported to be a “likeable” third outing for the franchise, it will also touchingly provide a posthumous performance from Anton Yelchin who tragically died last month. Their film, the third in the rebooted series, was coming out in less than a month and a rigorous press tour was imminent. “We all carry him with us in our hearts tonight”, he said. “That’s how we found the strength to be here. If we don’t talk about it it’s like we’re ignoring it”.
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Star Trek Beyond opens this weekend and is expected to perform pretty solidly at the box office this weekend.
Star Trek Beyond was always going to deal with heartbreak.
Abrams has confirmed that Chris Hemsworth will return in “Star Trek 4”.
Gone, too, were screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.
The new film will not be penned by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung though, with J D Payne and Patrick McKay taking on writing duties this time. And similar to the past two films, they are facing a seemingly insurmountable opposition of overwhelming force and technology. Abrams has stated that Yechin’s role of Chekov will not be recast, and appropriately so.
There was already a crew in Vancouver waiting for directions on what to build for the set. Many other things, in fact, like how Elba, similar to Cumberbatch from Into Darkness, embarrasses Chris Pine’s fully capable but relatively limited acting chops with his raw, fully committed portrayal of systemic abandonment and perceived betrayal. The cast and creative team also took a moment to pay tribute to two late colleagues, “Trek” icon Leonard Nimoy, who died previous year, and castmate Anton Yelchin, who died in June following a freak auto accident.
The arguments between Spock and the cantankerous Doctor “Bones” McCoy (Karl Urban) produce some genuinely hilarious moments. In-a-rut Kirk early on complains of space life having become “a little episodic” (wink, wink), although in some ways that’s the movie’s strength, extending the franchise by another reasonably entertaining, if disspiritingly disposable, “episode” and one that’s just slightly more evocative of Star Trek’s “60s roots than Abrams” pseudo-“Star Wars” entries.
The 27-year-old actor tragically died when he was trapped by his own auto in a freak accident on the driveway of his Los Angeles home in June, leaving the cast of the sci-fi franchise and fans devastated.
Yelchin, the Saint Petersburg born actor, died an unfortunate death at the age of 27. It’s been done before, with Paul Walker in Fast & Furious 7, and Oliver Reed in Gladiator, and although the circumstances are slightly different, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.
On the red carpet, the cast chose to wear black pins in Yelchin’s memory. It has very obvious problems, but none of them stop this from being a fantastically fun movie. We’re mourning – he’s an irreplaceable person and the kindest person.
The series will live on, of course. There’s a major twist in the film that lends to his motivations, but I won’t give it away here.
“There is no recasting”, Abrams said.
“It’s a handsome shot of Anton, looking relaxed, like he didn’t know the camera was on him”, says Pegg.
But he did find some grace and solace in seeing his friend up on the big screen again.
“I have thought about it”.
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Perhaps luckily for all of us, he powered through his predisposition and his tumultuous hold on the story because it is as classic as Star Trek gets. “He’s alive and he’s happy and he will be there forever”.
