After J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness went over like a broken transporter beam, fans have been wanting to see the franchise return to its tonal roots. That means exciting, thought-provoking, and hopeful stories, not the dark action-based films Abrams had been giving them. When the trailer for Star Trek Beyond hit late last year, fans still weren't pleased. And that included original Trekker George Takei, who said, “I didn’t, in the preview, note anything of the substance of what made Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek so engaging.”
So will that change with the arrival of the latest trailer, which debuted last night at a Star Trek fan event? That's tough to say. The footage has all of the big action one would expect from a movie directed by Fast & Furious helmer, Justin Lin, including what looks to be the destruction of the Enterprise, but there's also the excitement of a "first contact" with a new alien race, something that was always key in the series. Idris Elba plays part of that newly-encountered race, the villain Krall, who he has previously described as "predatory" and someone who has "a real beef with what the Enterprise stands for."
Maybe Simon Pegg, who not only stars but helped co-write the script, can give fans what they've long been expecting out of this reboot. Otherwise they'll just complain until the new TV series from Bryan Fuller kicks off later this year. Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Karl Urban, Sofia Boutella, and Joe Taslim, Star Trek Beyond opens July 22nd.
