Star Trek Into Darkness ended with the USS Enterprise setting off on a five-year exploratory mission, right where the original 1960s series started.  Roberto Orci, who graduated to Star Trek 3 director after co-writing Star Trek and Into Darkness, teased where the sequel will take the crew:

"They have set off on their five-year mission. So their adventure is going to be in deep space."

Check out Orci's full quote on Star Trek 3 details after the jump.

Orci said on the Humans from Earth podcast [via Badass Digest]:

In [Into Darkness] they set out finally where the original series started. The first two films – especially the 2009 [Star Trek] – was an origin story. It was about them coming together. So they weren’t the characters they were in the original series. They were growing into them and that continues on in the second movie.  So in this movie they are closer than they are to the original series characters that you have ever seen. They have set off on their five-year mission. So their adventure is going to be in deep space.

Star Trek fans---are you excited about the prospect of getting closer to the original series roots (at least in theory) and heading to deep space in 2016?