Director Justin Lin talks about STAR TREK 3

The Star Trek 3 director’s chair has been on a long voyage. First JJ Abrams, who revitalised the series with the 2009 reboot and its follow-up, warped out of the three-quel to direct its nemesis Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Series scribe Roberto Orci then stepped up and took over the helm to make his directing debut, but shortly afterwards was booted out due to “creative differences”, leading to a furious search for a new director.

Enter Justin Lin, director of It Has Begun: Bananapocalypse and, more importantly, the Fast & Furious movies 3 through 6 (a franchise which he reinvigorated after it was in danger of becoming just another sequel machine following the lackluster 2 Fast 2 Furious).

In a recent interview with Yahoo!, Lin spoke about the Star Trek franchise and teased the upcoming movie. And in news that will hopefully reassure many die-hard Star Trek fans, Lin confirmed that he grew up watching the original series (Abrams was famously a non-fan of the original Star Trek), and he talked about his emotional connection to it and how that factored into his decision to assume direct control:

I thought about how much a part of my life Star Trek was. Growing up, my parents had this little fish and chips restaurant in Anaheim in the shadows of Disneyland, and they didn’t close until 9 PM. As a family, we didn’t eat dinner until 10 PM, and we would watch the original Star Trek every night at 11. My dad worked 364 days a year, only took Thanksgiving off, and from age 8 to 18, the only time I could hang out with my parents was by staying late.

And every night, it was Star Trek on Channel 13 in L.A. That was my childhood. All my friends were Star Wars kids but I didn’t go to the movies, so I was the ginger Star Trek kid. Thinking about this, it became a very personal and very emotional decision.

He also touched very briefly on where the next movie will be going, saying:

As great as JJ’s films were, there’s still a lot to be mined from these characters. They haven’t really gone on their five-year mission, so what we experienced in the TV show hasn’t been touched on yet. That sets up an opportunity for exploration and the deeper you go, the more you are examining humanity. Those are the things that I absorbed as a kid and hope to tap into and embrace and celebrate. By the time this movie comes out, Star Trek will have been around for 50 years.

It’s all new and fresh. The Klingons, Romulans and other species are great, but it’s time to go further. It has been fun to focus on creating whole new worlds and species.

For me Star Trek was always at its best when exploring, both humanity and new frontiers, so this combined with his obvious love for the franchise and his great sense for action makes me quite excited to see just where the next voyage of the Starship Enterprise will take us. How about you?

Oh, and I bet you thought I was joking about It Has Begun: Bananapocalypse. I wasn’t. It’s Friday, relax, enjoy, you’re welcome.

Last Updated: June 5, 2015