Star Trek Into Darkness arguably changed the Star Trek franchise in ways that may or may not have been intentional. Because of Khan, starships were rendered obsolete by transporters that could span light years. Death was also no longer a problem for Starfleet, thanks to the infamous super blood within the veins of Khan and his followers. But Star Trek Beyond director Justin Lin has a very Star Trek solution to the problems posed by Into Darkness: he’s going to completely ignore the events of the previous movie.

“I embraced what [director] J.J. [Abrams] has brought – without him this whole group wouldn’t be together – so I’m definitely very appreciative of him,” said Lin in an interview with Birth.Movies.Death. “At the same time, do we address [Star Trek Into Darkness]? No, but we don’t discount it. We don’t sit there and say it doesn’t exist, it’s part of this universe now.”

Apparently Alice Eve’s Carol Marcus is also going the way of super blood and interstellar transporters.

“We pick the crew up about two and a half years after Into Darkness,” related Lin. “There were many iterations where we did go and explore [Carol Marcus], but we figured it was two and a half years… It was something we talked about and worked on, but in the presentation of this film it didn’t quite fit in. It’s there with the transporter and everything [laughs].”

Additionally, Lin defended the Star Trek Beyond trailer in a separate interview with SlashFilm.

“When I saw the teaser, I’m like ‘Aw, sh-t. You really have to put the motorcycle in there?’ So I get it, I get it, I get it,” said Lin. “There were other versions [of the trailer] that were much more traditional and I can see where maybe the hardcore fans could probably see that as, ‘Oh.’ But with trailers you’re putting a two-hour movie into a minute and a half, and the one thing I wanted to make sure is that it hopefully represents that we are trying to be bold and take risks; whether we are successful or not, I don’t know.”

Star Trek Beyond will be released on July 22, 2016. Are you happy with Lin’s decision? Let us know in the comments below.

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HT: Birth Movies Death & SlashFilm
Image Credit: Paramount