Paramount Pictures has released the first trailer for Star Trek Beyond online. Fast & Furious veteran Justin Lin steps into the director's chair this time around, working from a screenplay written by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung that finds the Enterprise crew stranded on an alien planet. We knew from the hiring of Lin that Paramount wanted someone who could really lean on the action side of this franchise, and that is very evident from this debut trailer. It's positively unmistakable that this is a Star Trek movie from the director behind that mile-long runway chase in Fast & Furious 6, as we see explosions and stunts galore anchored by a callback to J.J. Abrams' first Trek film in the form of "Sabotage".
And that's really the crux of this initial trailer: to tell audiences that with Star Trek Beyond they'll be getting something big, brash, and fun. Will that result in a good Star Trek movie? I have no idea, but seeing Kirk ride a motorcycle across an alien planet is definitely a different direction. However, the tone set in this first look is actually a little refreshing. In a world filled with dark and gritty blockbusters, some nicely placed bits of humor (no doubt thanks to Pegg and Jung's script) could make this a fun-loving adventure. Not to say Abrams' films weren't funny, but this trailer is leaning pretty heavily on the humor aspect as opposed to the dire first trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness.
It's also curious to see Roberto Orci, John D. Payne, and Patrick McKay receiving screenplay credit given that while they originated the first draft of the script, Pegg and Jung were brought in to do a Page One rewrite. Regardless, with Star Trek Beyond Paramount is certainly taking this franchise in a bold new direction. Whether that's a direction worthy of Trek remains to be seen.
Check out the trailer below and sound off with your thoughts in the comments, and click here for 30 images from the trailer. Star Trek Beyond opens July 22, 2016, and stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Joe Taslim, Sofia Boutella, and Idris Elba.
