Although JJ Abrams likes to keep things tightly under wraps, he has lifted the curtain, albeit slightly, on Star Trek Into Darkness.
Although there is darkness in the title, and some hints that this may indeed be a darker Trek, Abrams has told Empire that the new next Trek will actually be about “hope” and “love.”
“I don’t like going to the movies to feel depressed and feel diminished. The reason you go to the movies is to feel bigger and stronger and happier. So this is a movie that they certainly go Into Darkness, but I would be the wrong director if it was about characters staying there,” Abrams explained.
“This is very much a movie about hope, about love, about romance, and about facing something that is truly terrifying and finding a way through the connection of your family and surviving and being stronger afterwards.” (I think when Abrams says ‘family,’ he’s clearly referring to the Enterprise crew).
As Trek screenwriter Damon Lindelof told Collider, “A totally dark Trek is not Trek. And I think that one of the things that the best iterations of Trek [did] is they were able to find a blend where the stakes were monumentally life or death but there were still moments of great humor. I think the ways that the characters relate to each other, even in times of immense stress because several of them, particularly Bones, use humor as a coping mechanism. I don’t think anybody wants to see a dour Star Trek movie.”
And if you still haven’t seen the new model Trek, not to worry. Abrams told io9 that Into Darkness holds up as a stand-alone. “This movie doesn’t require you [see] the first film.”
Along with the sneak peak into the upcoming Trek, Abrams also addressed why he doesn’t want to take on the next Star Wars film. Abrams would be a great choice, and it would be great to see how he could reinvent Lucas’s space opera, much like he brought new life to Gene Roddenberry’s great sci-fi franchise.
But as Abrams told Empire, he is friends with producer Kathleen Kennedy, who now runs the Lucas empire, and as Abrams said, “There were the very early conversations and I quickly said [no] because of my loyalty to Star Trek, and also just being a fan…I’d rather be in the audience not knowing what was coming rather than being involved in the minutiae of making them.”
