Justin Lin will captain Star Trek 3, replacing outgoing director J.J. Abrams, who’s moved on to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
The film had originally lined up Roberto Orci to direct. Orci and Alex Kurtzman had co-written the first two films in the rebooted franchise. He also was executive producer on Star Trek (2009) and a producer on Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). He will remain a producer on Star Trek 3.
The main cast is set to return for the threequel: Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, Zoe Saldana as Lt. Uhura, Zach Quinto as Mr. Spock, Simon Pegg as Scotty, Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy, Anton Yelchin as Chekov and John Cho as Sulu.
The film is aiming for a 2016 release to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the franchise. The first episode of the classic Star Trek TV series debuted Sept. 8, 1966, on NBC.
