‘Star Trek Beyond’: John Cho Talks Sulu’s Baby, Chris Pine Talks Leonard Nimoy, And Karl Urban Talks Retro Uniforms

Star Trek Beyond will debut in the 50th year of the franchise. According to Heroic Hollywood and video features from Entertainment Tonight – where a correspondent spoke with Chris Pine, Karl Urban, and John Cho on the (post-2000) Star Trek sequel set – at this point in the series, it’ll be a couple of years into their mission, with the U.S.S. Enterprise having some wear to it.

#StarTrekBeyond – #ET visits the set: https://t.co/4SSsnAAbkk pic.twitter.com/NxUx4hR9yk

— 50yearmission (@50yearmission) January 15, 2016

Karl Urban, who plays Doctor Leonard McCoy, gave credence to the costume designers who put the work into uniforms. Urban saw it to be a “nod” to Captain Kirk’s crew from the 60s. There are shoulder pads prevalent as well. Also, as Chris Pine acknowledged to the Entertainment Tonight interviewer the passing of Leonard Nimoy, the actor believed that Star Trek Beyond may likely be an homage to him as well.

Last year, Adam Nimoy brought forth a Kickstarter campaign and raised enough money to move forward with the For The Love Of Spock documentary. Also there had been recently announced an Indiegogo campaign via Leonard’s daughter and husband in documentary called COPD: Highly Illogical, according to Crowd Fund Insider.

On the set of Star Trek Beyond with Access Hollywood, reporter Scott Mantz, wearing a retro Star Trek T-Shirt, spoke with Chris Pine as reported by iDigital Times. Pine spoke of some interesting plot details. It looks like in the sequel, the movie is steering away from the Kirk-Spock team-up and towards the Spock-Bones relationship. Actor and co-writer Simon Pegg, who also plays Montgomery Scott, gave some plot details in this regard.

Apparently, the 2009 reboot, directed by J.J. Abrams, focused on Spock and Kirk’s “conflicting personalities.” The following Abrams-directed Star Trek Into Darkness, starring the villain Khan, had a focus more on the development of their relationship. In this Star Trek continuity though, they reversed places in the radiation filled room, as compared with Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan which was released in 1982.

For those long time veteran fans of the franchise, you’re probably already familiar with the Bones-Spock relationship that is quite antagonistic in nature that’s seemingly love/hate. Pegg describes this relationship.

“There’s a moment in the script where they seperate and we thought like the Kirk/Spock dynamic could have been explored quite alot in the first two movies and I, myself and Doug Jung my co-writer always loved the dynamic between Bones and Spock because they are opposites. They’re like the devil and the angel on Kirk’s shoulders. To put them together, in a sort of perilous situations felt like a gift to do.”

In Star Trek Beyond also comes a throwback of sorts when on Entertainment Tonight John Cho, well known for his previous roles on the Harold and Kumar movies, gave an interesting piece of plot information on the helm console of the U.S.S. Enterprise bridge. Apparently there’s a level of homesickness going on with the crew and Cho explains there is a picture of his young daughter sitting on his station. He expressed that there’s a level of unprofessionalism as it’s “in the way of the buttons.”

Cho also expressed a Star Trek Beyond “revelation”:

“There is another revelation that you’ll find out in regards to this baby, but you’ll have to wait till you see the movie.”

Speaking of throwbacks, one may look back to Star Trek Generations, a portion of the franchise involving the Next Generation crew, which had a piece in the opening scene where Captain Kirk was seeing off the Enterprise B in the year 2293.

NEW! John Cho Shares Sulu’s Surprising #StarTrekBeyond Secret in Set Interview (Spoilers!) https://t.co/Dix93DaI4d pic.twitter.com/XBJ0N5oGa2

— TrekCore.com ? (@TrekCore) January 15, 2016

Any fans recall helm operator Ensign Demora Sulu, played by Jacqueline Kim? Remember Kirk was totally clueless about Hikaru Sulu having even had a daughter? Well, it looks like Sulu in this Star Trek continuinity is making it blatantly obvious only a few feet away from the captain’s chair. Perhaps now this will make Kirk a little more aware of Sulu’s homesickness?

Keep an eye out out come July 22 when Star Trek Beyond debuts. The film was directed by Justin Lin, produced and co-written by Robert Orci, and also produced by Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ J.J. Abrams.

[Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images Entertainment]