Tonight, the world’s first public screening of the highly anticipated film Star Trek Beyond was held at the Australian premiere in Sydney. The event launches two weeks of promotions around the world for the cast, leading to its July 21st release date here in Australia and 22nd in the USA.
The film is the third in the series since JJ Abrams helped reboot the classic sci-fi franchise back in 2009. It’s the first without him at the helm. This time around, Fast and Furious director Justin Lin joined the returning cast and crew to bring the USS Enterprise back to life. Lim was joined on the silver carpet in Sydney by four members of the cast: Zachary Quinto (Spock), Chris Pine (Kirk), John Cho (Sulu) and New Zealand’s Karl Urban (Bones), who is also in Australia to film Thor: Ragnarok.
Some of the film’s release has been overshadowed by the tragic death of young actor Anton Yelchin, who plays Checkov in the film. While the cast understandably shied away from their loss during silver carpet interviews, Chris Pine spoke on behalf of everyone involved in the film in front of a packed crowd, just before the start of the screening, “This has been a particularly awful two weeks as you can imagine. Anton was family.”
He went on to say that he wanted the film to be a celebration of Anton and his great work, as well as the “Godfather of these films”, Leonard Nimoy, who passed away last year.
On a lighter note, Karl Urban used the microphone as an opportunity to offer his condolences to “New Zealand’s West Island” on their three recent loses to the English rugby team. Touché.
The film also stars returning cast members Zoe Saldana and Simon Pegg with Idris Elba and Sofia Boutella joining the cast.
The Iris had the chance to speak to the cast alongside director Justin Lin on the carpet before the film and you’ll have a chance to hear them talk more about it in the days ahead.
Star Trek: Beyond is released in Australian cinemas on July 21st.
Photos by Nathan Atkins
———-
