Justin Lin set to direct ‘Star Trek 3’ which gets a solid 2016 release date

Paramount Pictures, Skydance Productions and JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot set Justin Lin to direct Star Trek 3 which is now confirmed for the summer of 2016.

Deadline noted that Lin is “credited with reviving the Fast & Furious series” as the new film will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the franchise.

On the release date, Trek 3 will avoid Captain America: Civil War and X-Men: Apocalypse, both likely be on their way outof theaters as July rolls around and a month prior to the release of Suicide Squad.

Chris Pine and team will be back for “Trek 3” in 2016

Lin “replaces Roberto Orci, who got that job after being involved as co-writer of the revamped Star Trek series. The first two installments were directed by Abrams, who then left to direct a revival of the Star Warsfranchise with Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Deadline added.

Comments by Orci and others point to the beginning of the five year mission.

“They have set off on their five-year mission. So their adventure is going to be in deep space,” Orci said. “In [Into Darkness] they set out finally where the original series started. The first two films – especially the 2009 [Star Trek] – was an origin story. It was about them coming together. So they weren’t the characters they were in the original series. They were growing into them and that continues on in the second movie.  So in this movie they are closer than they are to the original series characters that you have ever seen. They have set off on their five-year mission. So their adventure is going to be in deep space.”

The cast of Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Anton Yelchin, Simon Pegg and John Cho will all be back for another adventure.

Star Trek 3 will arrive in theaters July 8, 2016.