UPDATE: Following Abrams’ comments at the press conference, Paramount Pictures has officially announced production on a new Star Trek movie to follow Star Trek Beyond. The story will indeed unite Chris Pine’s Captain James Kirk with his long dead father George, likely by whim of the same strain of time travel logic that brought two Spocks (Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy) together earlier on in the series. Quinto and the remaining extant cast members—including Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, and Simon Pegg—are expected to return for this fourth outing.

Last week, Star Trek Beyond emerged from the earliest rounds of critics screenings with a considerably positive reputation. The film was so well-liked that Paramount Pictures even dropped its review embargo six days ahead of schedule, eager to let satisfied writers get the good word out there about the third in the Kelvin-verse movies. But perhaps an even greater testament to how positive a taste Beyond has left is its effective reversal of our communal opinion on whether or not there’d be a fourth new Star Trek film. Although many fans entered the 2016 summer season expecting the rebooted franchise to cap with the Justin Lin-directed threequel, it’s all but written in stone now that Star Trek 4 is on its way to theaters.

“Yes,” said J.J. Abrams at a Los Angeles press conference, per Den of Geek, when asked about the possibility of a fourth feature, “and there’s something that hopefully we’re figurative minutes away from talking about. But the answer is 100 percent yes, and it’s incredibly exciting.”

Concise confirmations and vague illusions to good ideas aren’t all that Abrams allowed, however. The standing franchise producer and director of Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness also told Den of Geek that Chris Hemsworth would be back in the saddle for the developing Star Trek 4, reviving his role as the late George Kirk. Hemsworth played the character, father of star James Kirk (Chris Pine) in Abrams’ Star Trek films, albeit appearing only in introductory scenes and flashbacks. Though he died (and rather chaotically, at that) before the primary events of the films began, this series’ penchant for timeline hopping could well bring him back for a larger, more pivotal role in a new film—a sensible option, considering the big name and box office draw that Hemsworth has become since his fleeting appearance in that inceptive ’09 picture.

Would you like to see Hemsworth take on a more significant role in Star Trek 4, perhaps right behind his (once) orphaned son James? Let us know!

Featured Image: Paramount Pictures