With all the hubbub surrounding Star Wars recently, it’s easy to forget that the other Star franchise is gearing up to start filming its next installment in June. Star Trek 3 has Fast & Furious veteran Justin Lin set to direct, but co-star Simon Pegg is currently working on the screenplay alongside Doug Jung. The actor and screenwriter previously spoke to us a bit about his process in writing the script for Trek 3, and he recently talked a bit more about the film during an interview with MTV.

We recently learned that Idris Elba was in talks to play the villain of the pic, and Pegg confirmed that the role he’s writing for Elba is an original character and not one that was previously established in the Trek universe:

“It will be [an original character], yes. This is the five-year mission now, we’re out there. We don’t always have to keep bumping into the same people… So we’re gonna try and reflect that in the movie.”

Pegg went on to say that he and Jung are trying to write Elba a “kick ass” role, but he also touched on the influence of the Trek TV series on their writing. The actor said that while the show was somewhat quaint in nature, essentially shooting on cheap soundstages while telling incredibly human and complex stories, today’s franchise environment won’t allow for a similarly scaled Star Trek. He and Jung’s goal, then, is to maintain the spirit of the show:

“We can invest in it the spirit of the show and get back to the essence of what it is, and so what we’re hoping to do is make a Star Trek for today that doesn’t forget where it came from.”

And finally, in the wake of the new Star Wars trailer, Pegg was asked if he thought The Force Awakens would be better than the prequels. Without hesitation, he responded:

“I think the trailer is better than all of the prequels combined.”

Nicely done, sir. Star Trek 3 is slated for release on July 8, 2016.