Star Trek Beyond director Justin Lin revealed the tumultuous production behind the third Star Trek movie produced by J.J. Abrams made him quit 3 times. Lin and co-screenwriters Simon Pegg, who also plays Scotty, and Doug Jung, ultimately crafted a thrilling adventure for the crew of the USS Enterprise that came the closest of Abrams’ movies to capture the spirit of Star Trek: The Original Series. However, making a Star Trek movie is anything but easy, and Lin describes the process he found himself in after he took Star Trek Beyond‘s directing gig.

During a watch-along of Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Justin Lin opened up to host Joshua Horowitz about how he became Star Trek Beyond‘s director in 2015, and working with J.J. Abrams and co-writer Simon Pegg. Lin says there was “no script” when he joined the project, and making Star Trek Beyond from “nothing” was “the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do.” Lin may have quit 3 times, but Pegg actually quit 4 times! Read his quote and watch the video of the podcast below:

I’m shooting True Detective in Ventura, and it’s a Thursday. I get a call from J.J. Abrams, and he’s like, ‘Hey man, just curious, do you like “Star Trek?’ I’m like, ‘I grew up watching “Star Trek” with my dad, it has so much meaning.’ He said, ‘Would you happen to have an idea for a “Star Trek” movie?’ And I said, ‘Aren’t you in pre-production?’ And he said, ‘Nope, no, we’re shut down.’ He said, ‘If you have an idea, would you want to come by the office on Monday?’ So, on Monday, I sat down with J.J. and shared with him the idea of Star Trek Beyond.’He’s like, ‘Great!’ And this is the end of January. He said, ‘Let’s do it, but we have to start production in June.’ No script. Nothing… It was tough. The toughest thing I’ve ever had to do.

Simon [Pegg] and I joke about it now, but It was intense, I had quit three times, and Simon had quit four times… also we didn’t know each other… For me, Simon Pegg, it was a dream to have the opportunity to work with him, but he comes from a very traditional process… But I’m sitting there in Vancouver and I have to start building sets. ‘Star Trek’ is not like ‘Fast and Furious,’ every idea you come up with is a build. And we had no time… love Simon and Doug [Jung, co-writer], but it was rough, and I didn’t know if we were going to make it out of that first week.

Star Trek Beyond Ending & Why No Sequel 7 Years Later Explained

Star Trek Beyond set up a sequel for Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk and the Kelvin Timeline crew, but it’s 7 years later and we’re yet to see Star Trek 4.

The Current State Of Star Trek Movies

The next Star Trek movie will exclusively stream on Paramount+.

There is a new Star Trek movie currently in production, but it will bypass movie theaters entirely. Star Trek: Section 31 is the first made-for-streaming exclusively on Paramount+. Billed as a ‘Star Trek movie event,’ Section 31 stars Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh as Emperor Philippa Georgiou, picking up her antihero’s story from Georgiou’s exit from Star Trek: Discovery season 3. Details about Section 31 are tightly under wraps, but the film is directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, and written by Craig Sweeny, and the plan is for Section 31 to be the first in a new wave of Star Trek movies to stream on Paramount+ every 2 years.

Justin Lin currently holds the distinction of being the last person to direct a theatrical Star Trek movie. Star Trek Beyond didn’t perform as well at the box office as the two prior Star Trek movies directed by J.J. Abrams, and Paramount Pictures has been unable to launch a fourth Star Trek movie since 2016. Big-name filmmakers like S.J. Clarkson, Noah Hawley, Matt Shakman, and Quentin Tarantino have been unable to break Star Trek 4 out of development hell, and a December 22, 2023, release date announced by Paramount came and went with no Star Trek 4. But judging by Justin Lin’s experience developing Star Trek Beyond, making a Star Trek movie truly sounds difficult.