Go Beyond the Final Frontier With the ‘Star Trek Beyond’ Trailer

Yes, Star Wars: The Force Awakens finally opens in theaters this Friday, and we know you’re all excited. But, if you’re excited for J.J. Abrams’ other space franchise, we have good news for you: the first trailer for Star Trek Beyond has arrived.

While J.J. Abrams has moved on to a galaxy far, far away, he’s been replaced in the director’s seat by Justin Lin, he of Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6 fame. The result is a much different Star Trek film that has some fans up in arms.

There were reports back when Star Trek Beyond was still in the development phases that Paramount wanted the third film to be more like Guardians of the Galaxy. The first two Star Trek films made money, but Star Trek Into Darkness made less than the first and left fans with a bad taste in their mouths (it was voted by fans as the worst Trek movie of all-time). Guardians, a team-based adventure set in space, made big bucks and Paramount executives wanted the Trek franchise to follow that more comedic, action-heavy tone. It looks like they got what they wanted.

The new trailer, set to The Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” (a nod to the first time we met Kirk in 2009's Star Trek), has a much lighter feel. There’s jokes a-plenty (Bones, surrounded by enemies: “At least I won’t die alone.” [Spock transports out.] “Well, that’s just typical!”) and generally a more grounded feel. Instead of space battles, the USS Kelvin is destroyed and the crew is stranded on an alien planet (where Pine meets a sexy, bad-ass alien he’s palling around with). Simon Pegg, who wrote the script, said of his take on the film:

People don’t see [Star Trek] being a fun, brightly coloured, Saturday night entertainment like the Avengers. [The goal was to] make a western or a thriller or a heist movie, then populate that with Star Trek characters so it’s more inclusive to an audience that might be a little bit reticent.

Mission accomplished? As a non-Trekkie, I thought it looked fine, but I could also see where some hardcore fans might be a little put off.

Star Trek Beyond brings back Pegg, Jon Cho, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoë Saldana, Karl Urban and Anton Yelchin, plus adds Sofia Boutella, Lydia Wilson, Joe Taslim and Idris Elba as the new villain.

Star Trek Beyond opens in theaters on July 22, 2016.