When it comes to Star Trek Into Darkness, fans, in general, weren't too happy with the Star Trek universe painted by J.J. Abrams in that film. Now, though, the Star Trek movies are in new hands with director Justin Lin, who recently confirmed in an interview that Star Trek Beyond ignores those wacky things that happened in Into Darkness.
One of the weirdest plot points from Into Darkness revolved around Khan's blood, which gave the world a cure for death at the end of the film. That doesn't leave much open to a sequel, so that's one of the key elements left out in the new movie. Into Darkness also introduced the ability to teleport anywhere in the universe, something that also doesn't really fit the Star Trek universe, so that got ignored, too.
"[Co-writers] Simon [Pegg] and Doug [Jung] and I have spent some time on that. [laughs] Star Trek has been around for 50 years, and every filmmaker that comes on has a different point of view, and it's a universe that can support many points of view and journeys and adventures," said Lin to BirthMoviesDeath.com. "I embraced what JJ has brought — without him this whole group wouldn't be together — so I'm definitely very appreciative of him. At the same time, do we address it? No, but we don't discount it. We don't sit there and say it doesn't exist, it's part of this universe now."
So basically, it's one of those things that sort of happened, but will never get mentioned again. Considering most fans' take on those two particular details from Into Darkness, that's probably a smart move. The new film also ignores the relationship established in the previous movie between Captain Kirk and Carol Marcus: oddly enough, that's keeping in line with the original Trek series, where Kirk romanced a different woman in nearly every episode.
However, one aspect of the previous two Abrams-helmed Star Trek movies that Lin didn't go into details about concerns the romance between Spock and Uhura. His answer to a question regarding that wasn't very clear on their fate as a couple.
"What we're doing is appropriate to the two and a half years. It's a continuation, in a way, and I don't want to ignore things and act as if they don't exist, so there's an acknowledgement and I think their relationship is consistent to the way it was before," said Lin.
Meanwhile, the first Star Trek Beyond trailer landed earlier this week, much to the chagrin of fans and others, including Star Trek's George Takei and The Next Generation's Wil Wheaton. Takei pointed out that the trailer seemed to miss Roddenberry's initial vision for Star Trek, while Wheaton just referred to it as "generic."
I saw the weirdest trailer today. It was for a generic science fiction action movie, but it was all dressed up in Star Trek costumes.
— Wil Wheaton (@wilw) December 14, 2015
Although successful, many fans believe this holds true for all the new Star Trek films, believing that Abrams watered down something that was once intelligent and thought-provoking.
Star Trek Beyond opens in theaters on July 22.
