Simon Pegg talks Star Trek 3 director Roberto Orci and Star Wars 7 effects

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The continuously busy Simon Pegg is out there promoting HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS and will later star work on MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 5, but always finds time to geek out about his friends and the work their doing around him too. Pegg discussed the hiring of Roberto Orci as the new director of STAR TREK 3, and hyped again his enthusiasm for STAR WARS: EPISODE VII.

Speaking with BBC News Pegg had this to say about Orci getting the job:

“He emailed me before the news broke saying: ‘Hey man, I might be doing this, shall we nerd out?’ He’s a good friend, he’s very much part of the Star Trek family. I’m really happy he’s doing it as it’s kept within the family kind of thing, it’s not somebody coming in from outside. Bob’s been there since the first Star Trek – by that I mean the 2009 one – so it seemed to make perfect sense that he come in as a director on this one because he gets it. He was always the most Trekkie of all of those guys anyway, he’s always understood the story the best so it’s great that he’s going to be involved in the writing and directing.”

J.J. Abrams will be producing STAR TREK 3 this time around as he’s hard at work on STAR WARS: EPISODE VII. If you didn’t know by now, Pegg is a huge Star Wars fan and a friend of Abrams’. He had this to say about his friend and the next installment:

“I’m very excited and obviously I have some inside information because he’s a very good friend of mine. I’m excited to know he’s going to be using physical effects and trying to make it in line with the processes that brought about the first three [films]. It’s going to feel more like Star Wars than anything we’ve seen in the last 30 years – I can sleep at night knowing he’s at the helm of that.”

I was glad to hear that even Pegg thought it would be silly for him to pop up in STAR WARS: EPISODE VII; unless it’s a comedy, I can’t imagine a cameo that has worked otherwise. As for Trek, the 50th anniversary of Star Trek is in 2016, so it would be smart and appropriate for a film to be released around that time.

Never forget this scene from Spaced: