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JJ Abrams talks about Anton Yelchin and moving forward without Chekov in Star Trek 4

July 29th, 2016 by Marc Comments

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While Star Trek Beyond gave us a nice, warm glow here at FTN, it’s impossible not to acknowledge the sad legacy it has left behind.

Just before the movie went into production Leonard Nimoy, Mr Spock in the original Star Trek and, indeed, in the new movies, passed away. And his death is given a lovely acknowledgement in the movie.

However, that wasn’t the end of the story as just as the movie wrapped, the world was shocked by the death of 27-year-old actor Anton Yelchin who played Ensign Pavel Chekov in the new movies.

While spock’s death was written into the story of the new movie, leaving new Spock, played by Zachary Quinto, alone in the universe, the same can surely not be said of Chekov.

And it’s something that producer JJ Abrams is giving a lot of thought to: “I would say there’s no replacing him. There’s no recasting. I can’t possibly imagine that, and I think Anton deserves better,” Abrams said.

“We knew going into this movie it would be a bit of a heartbreak just because of Leonard . We had no idea just how devastating events would become.”

But what will become of Chekov? If he is not recast – and we’re happy about that – then will his character be written out? Or perhaps killed off? “I have thought about it, we’re working on it, and it’s too early to talk about it.”

A sad situation indeed…

Source: Toronto Sunday

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….