As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations this year, the Star Trek universe welcomes a new film, Star Trek Beyond. It promises a big new threat to the crew of the USS Enterprise. and some extra action flare from Fast & Furious franchise regular director Justin Lin. It also has Simon Pegg adding co-writer to his duties alongside playing Scotty, and he talks to Empire about the new movie's focus.
Set once more in the rebooted Trek universe established by J.J. Abrams, Beyond finds Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), McCoy (Karl Urban), Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and the rest two years into their famous five-year mission. And, truth be told, the voyage is wearing on them. “They’ve come to rest at a Federation outpost, a sort of diplomatic hub,” says Pegg, who worked with Doug Jung on the screenplay.
But their momentary R&R is interrupted by Idris Elba's blue-faced alien antagonist Krall, who instead of showing his distaste for the Federation's ideals and reach through a strongly-worded letter to his local council, decides to unleash violence upon the poor Enterprise and its crew. “What’s the point of it all?” says Pegg of the big question that drives Kirk and co this time around. “We’re gathering a great community within the galaxy, but to what end? What does it all mean?”
As for Lin, he, like Krall (without the guns or nasty attitude) is also in a dismantling mood... “This is the 50th anniversary,” he says. “I felt like it was important to really deconstruct the idea of Star Trek, the idea of the Federation and why it’s special. We’ll really be poking at a lot of different things.”
Star Trek Beyond will be in UK cinemas on July 22. There's more from Pegg and Lin in the next issue of Empire, which is on shelves across various quadrants from April 28. For more on the movie, head here.