Chris Pine Discusses the Future of the Star Trek Franchise

In 2009, J.J. Abrams released his big-screen reboot of the Star Trek franchise, which garnered success on a popular, critical, and financial level. Three years later, details continue to emerge involving the film's sequel. But can the cast and crew that managed to create such a fine product the first time manage to build upon their previous achievement?

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Chris Pine, who will resume his role of Captain James T. Kirk and also act as co-writer for the currently untitled sequel to Star Trek, remains confident that this task can be accomplished. What especially excites Pine is the prospect of developing a highly character-focused story which will delve deeper into the relationships between the crew members manning the Enterprise. Abrams rebooted the Star Trek franchise on an alternative timeline, meaning that the film has the freedom to differentiate the way its crew operates from the way the crew operated in the original television series. This provides an avenue to explore how the crew developed before they became the sort of cohesive and highly functional unit presented on the show. “Even though they’re a crew from what we know about the original team, the fun of getting there is following that journey to where they become that tight-knit crew. It’s no fun if they’re already a tight-knit crew. So suffice to say, they’re still learning how to get along,” says Pine. “The crew from the original series had gone on many, many journeys, they were a well-oiled machine in terms of how they function, and these characters are still figuring out who they are and who they are to each other. And I did not want to jump so far ahead that we missed a really important emotional connection to that transition for them.”