‘Star Trek’ producer JJ Abrams: Anton Yelchin will not be replaced

The actor – born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) – played the Russian-accented Chekov in all three “Star Trek” reboot films.

“Anton Yelchin should be here”, Abrams continued to say.

The actor, who played Pavel Chekov in the rebooted sci-fi movies, died in a freak auto accident in June at the age of 27.

The whole unit is mourning his unfortunate death and the film-maker himself seems to be highly grieved by the development, says the actor deserved much better than what he got in life.

“Star Trek Beyond” premieres today at Comic-Con and opens wide Friday, and viewers are likely to mourn when they see the sage visage of Leonard Nimoy (Ambassador Spock), who died past year after a long and rewarding career as actor and director. With another sequel on the horizon, Postmedia Network asked producer J.J. Abrams how they might deal with Yelchin’s death in the next installment of the franchise. It’s a bit of a surprise then, when Quinto has the entire room in a fit of all-out laughter five minutes into a hotel press conference in Beverly Hills for Star Trek Beyond.

“We wanted to make it part of that Spock’s arc as well, not just a reference to Spock Prime, or what we did eventually, of course, which was dedicate the film to him”, explains co-screenwriter Simon Pegg.

At Wednesday night’s Comic-Con premiere of Star Trek Beyond, Abrams spoke to EW about the story of the fourth film, saying that it’s his “favorite Star Trek story that we’ve had”.

Star Trek Beyond producer J.J. Abrams, who directed the previous two instalments in the science-fiction franchise, led the cast and fans in a period of silent reflection ahead of the film’s American bow on Wednesday (20Jul16).

Read:Star Trek Beyond: Early reactions are in.

Then the lights dimmed, and the orchestra began to play, and fireworks erupted over San Diego to the iconic music of “Star Trek” – 50 years old, and still unforgettable.