JJ Abrams officially on board for Star Trek 2

Trekkers everywhere can now breathe a sigh of relief. Not that there were any serious doubts that JJ Abrams would return to direct the sequel to 2009's Star Trek, no doubt some were nervous as he never seemed to fully commit to the project. He gave it some lip service, but Paramount was shaky enough on the whole thing that they bumped gave the film's planned June 2012 release date over to G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation. Not exactly confidence inspiring. But now Vulture confirms that Abrams will be behind the camera, and that the script is further along than I think most people expected.

Back in July when the date got bumped, we learned that Abrams was inching closer to making a decision. The hold up was partially due to Trek co-writer Alex Kurtzman's busy schedule, as he was prepping his directorial debut, Welcome to People. Now that it's wrapped up he, Bob Orci, and Abrams should have the script finished by the end of the month.

Pre-production on highly anticipated flick is already underway, with filming set to commence in the winter. Even though Star Trek has arguably the largest and most loyal sci-fi fanbase this side of Star Wars, the film franchise had been languishing for years. So there was no guarantee that Abrams would be able to jumpstart it successfully. By including a young, recognizable cast and jettisoning years of established continuity(without disregarding it), he turned Trek into a box office heavyweight again, raking in nearly $400M worldwide.