‘Star Trek 3’ To Debut On 50th Anniversary Of Series

Star Trek 3 will be playing in movie theaters on July 8, 2016, 50 years after the television series premiered.

Reuters reported that Paramount Pictures issued a press release announcing the date. “‘Star Trek 3,’ the latest film in the intergalactic franchise featuring Captain Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise, will open in U.S. theaters on July 8, 2016, Paramount Pictures said on Tuesday.”

The 2016 release date coincides with the 50th anniversary of the premiere of the original Star Trek television series, according to CNET.

“The original series of ‘Star Trek‘ was first broadcast in September 1966 on NBC, after an unsuccessful pilot was made a couple of years earlier. The show ran for three years and spawned several spin-offs and a series of movies.”

Dark Horizons reports that Star Trek 3 will have little competition when it opens.

“Right now there’s no competition for that release slot, though Spielberg’s ‘The BFG‘ & David Yates’ ‘Tarzan‘ open the week before, and ‘Ice Age 5‘ and the Damon/Greengrass ‘Bourne‘ reunion open the following week.”

That might be good news for fans of the series, although at least one person is concerned with the date.

Charlie Jane Anders, writing at io9, worries that 2016 might not be enough time for the director to make a good movie.

“The real question is whether he can make a release date 18 months from now, without cutting too many corners.”

But Tasha Meares writing at Fansided doesn’t seem to share that concern and instead seems excited about how the date might make for a great movie.

“If you know a thing or two about the Star Trek universe, you know that 2016 holds a rather large significance. 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the franchise that Gene Roddenberry started so many years ago.”

“One can only imagine that Paramount would have something super-amazing in store for us. Whether this means that we will get a number of blasts from the past in the movie itself or whether there will be all sorts of special events leading up to the film’s release (or maybe even both?) remains to be seen.”

The Inquisitr reported a few days ago that Justin Lin had just been named director for the movie.

“The initial reboot of Star Trek, directed by J.J. Abrams, was released in 2009, grossing $380 million worldwide, and was followed by the second Abrams-directed film, Star Trek: Into Darkness, which grossed more than $460 million worldwide upon its opening in May of 2013. There is little information about the plot of the third film, with Justin Lin set to direct, other than reports that Patrick McKay and John D. Payne have worked on the most recent draft of the Star Trek 3 script.”

No additional details on the story of Star Trek 3 accompanied the press release on its planned theatrical debut.

[Image by Zade Rosenthal via New York Daily News]