Talking friendship, intense storylines and -- Leonard Nimoy

When Paramount Pictures opened its gates recently to a select group of passionate Star Trek fans for a special sneak preview of Star Trek Beyond – on one of the very soundstages the original television series filmed on when it began production 50 years ago in 1966 – the Trek faithful had no idea what they were in for. The excitement level was propelled several warp factors forward, though, when members of the cast and creative team made a surprise appearance to offer a sneak peek at the third film in J.J. Abrams’ franchise.

Abrams, who stepped out of the Trek director’s seat but still executive produced the film, joined moderator Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame to screen special footage: Star Trek salutes from celebrities including Rihanna and Slash; a tribute to the original series’ Spock, Leonard Nimoy, who passed away last year; the film’s newest trailer; and a handful of key sequences. He also introduced the third film’s director, Justin Lin of Fast & Furious fame (and a die-hard Trek fan), and the film’s triumvirate: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban.

On putting a longtime Trek superfan at the helm of the third film:

J.J. Abrams: I’m a late adopter, to be totally honest. I’ve said this since the 2009 movie. I was not a Star Trek fan as a kid, and I realized what I missed out on, because I got to fall in love with it watching the shows when I started working on the film.

Justin Lin, who is an extraordinary guy, and a wonderful director, did an amazing job on this. He was a Star Trek fan from, I think, the very, very beginning. He would watch with his parents and everything. He loved and knew this world so well.

Justin Lin: It’s a shared journey with these characters, with this great crew. But at the same time, you’re pushing into unknown. I think that’s what I love about it, is embracing stuff with these characters that you’ve known for 50 years, but at the same time, we’re constantly pushing it and challenging ourselves.

Abrams: And talk about intense… the story that you pitched felt so life and death and so frightening, and very much like an episode of the show, but large. It was an amazing pitch to hear, from the very early days.

On how the cast may have had their best time yet while filming:

Chris Pine: I think the tone of this film is definitely in the vein of what we did in the first, which was kind of fun-pop. It has great pathos, great storylines, some great action, but we like to have fun. It’s not the super drama of Marvel, it’s not meta. It’s just fun. We all like to make each other laugh, and with Simon behind it, with Pegg in the background giving us some zingers, we had a blast, and I think you’ll see that in this film.

Zachary Quinto: Hands down, my favorite part of filming these movies is getting to spend all my time with these people who are incredible. It keeps being brought up that we’ve been doing this for almost 10 years, which is kind of unfathomable. But it was 2007 when we made the first movie. We are truly a family to one another.

Karl Urban: I think for me, the really cool thing about us making this picture in Vancouver, when the other two pictures were shot here in Los Angeles, and all the L.A.-based cast had their social networks. This was like a fraternity. We were all forced to hang out! There was just so much love… I feel like we all grew closer, became tighter as a group, and I think that you’re going to see that.

"Is that a Tribble in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"

On the evolution of the Kirk, Spock and their friendship, especially when separated during the course of the film:

Quinto: I think they were always friends, in a way, I just think they approach things from a very different points of view and express things very differently. But I think the relationship benefited from the lack of buffer, and the fact that ultimately, they really need each other in order to survive. The whole movie really is about all of us finding our way back to one another, and understanding the power of what we unify when we’re together.

Pine: This is a different film for Kirk. The first two films I think were really about him dealing with the shadow of his father. He was born the day that his father died and that cast a really significant amount of pressure on him to live up to something. The pressure was almost unbearable, I think.

And in this one, I think he’s turned a corner and is realizing now, as a man who’s dealt with this issue, who is he as his own man. What is it like to be the captain of a starship and the captain of these people without needing to burden himself with that legacy? In that new space, there’s a lot of freedom there, thinking about what does he really want to do? What would make him happy?

"The whole movie really is about all of us finding our way back to one another, and understanding the power of what we unify when we’re together."

Quinto: I think Spock is trying to figure out his path. If you remember from the first film of our reboot, his planet was destroyed. I think he’s really torn between his allegiance to rebuilding his race, and his allegiance to the Federation of Starfleet.

I think that Kirk and Spock rely on each other a lot for guidance through those tough moments. They don't really necessarily have that in this film. So they both have arrived at a better understanding of who they are as individuals in an interesting way, because they don’t have each other.

On the film’s expanded dynamic between Spock and McCoy:

Urban: I think one of the wonderful things about what we do in this picture is, not only are we honoring the legacy of all the fantastic Star Trek that has been before, but actually exploring new territory, and this one’s going to make it so exciting. The fact that Bones and Spock get to spend so much time together and come to a deeper understanding as it were, it’s going to be a real treasure for an audience.

Quinto: These are two characters who are historically pretty diametrically opposed. So there’s also a lot of humor that comes from that and a lot of depth. I think they really do finish this film with a deeper appreciation for one another than when they started it, I would say.

On continuing to capture the essence of characters first created by the original cast:

Urban: Actually, the first film for me was quite terrifying because I’m a long-term fan of Star Trek. I watched it growing up as a kid. Then when J.J. cast me in the movie, I felt that if I wasn’t in the movie and I was going to the cinema, I would want to see something, some recognizable semblance of the character that I grew up and loved.

That was the challenge, was to identify what the very essence of those characters were, and were done so brilliantly well by them, by the original actors for 40-odd years. To identify what their essence is, and to distill it into a younger version of that character and make it our own. There were some days where it was quite nerve-wracking. But we were all blessed with the fact that we had such a wonderful helmsman in the face of J.J. Abrams.

On the behind-the-scenes fun of being on a Star Trek set:

Urban: Anytime you’re on the bridge of the Enterprise, and there’s 50 million buttons. You cannot help but go and push every single one of them. Just to see if something’s going to happen.

Pine: I’ll be in the chair and I’ll see [my costars] swiping s**t, moving levers – they’re finding all sorts of stuff to do in this thing.

Lin: Getting beamed up, that was always the thing when I was a little kid. So I remember stepping into the hallways of Enterprise. The lights aren’t on and it’s still painting and stuff. Just walking in there and feeling like, wow, I’m now part of this. And their asking like what color of white you want that wall to be. Those moments are definitely something…

On making their first Star Trek film without the presence of the late Leonard Nimoy:

Quinto: I’ve been getting that question a lot, actually: What was it like to make this the first movie without Leonard? In a way, I feel like he’s actually almost more a part of this film than he was of the other two. Obviously it comes with a lot of sadness and we all miss him all the time. But I feel like, you’ll see. He’s there. He’s there in a really powerful way. 

Star Trek Beyond comes to theaters July 22.