Rumor: Into Darkness Quinto’s Last Star Trek? Unlikely [UPDATE: ZQ Tweets ‘Simmer Down’]

Looks like we have another ‘will Zachary Quinto return to the role of Spock?’ scare going on. In a new interview promoting his work on American Horror Story, Zach said something which could (if viewed in a certain way) be interpreted as possibly saying he might not return for a third Trek film, following Star Trek Into Darkness.

 

UPDATE: Quinto Tweets ‘Simmer Down’

Shortly after TrekMovie made inquiries into this issue and posted first article, Zachary tweeted the following…

original story

Quinto Spock Comment Sparks Latest Rumor

Zachary Quinto has again sparked concerns that he may be done with the role of Spock. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly promoting his work as a serial killer on the FX series American Horror Story: Asylum. Of course before taking on the role of Spock, Quinto was at work playing the serial killer Sylar on Heroes.


Quinto on ‘American Horror Story’

In talking to EW, Quinto says that he is ready to move on to less killer roles…

While the Asylum experience has been rewarding, Quinto says he’s also ready to “go in a different direction” with his career after Star Trek Into Darkness hits theaters next summer. “It’s like an era of association with certain roles – a specific part like Spock, or a kind of part, like Sylar — is coming to an end,” he says. “I think it’s safe to say this will be the last serial killer I’ll be playing for the foreseeable future.”

Some fans and websites have taken this comment to suggest that Quinto is saying he is moving on from the role of Spock. However, that seems to be a stretch. I haven’t been able to confirm directly with Zach yet, but a source close to the actor reminds that Quinto has signed up for three Star Trek films (just like the rest of the main cast). The source also notes "he is clearly talking about his next steps and seeking new projects and roles going forward."

This isn’t the first time there has been a Quinto Spock scare. Back in early 2010 right after Zachary provided voice work for the new game Star Trek Online the actor said that he was "stepping away from Star Trek for at least two years." At the time many fans thought this meant he would not be appearing in the Star Trek sequel (now titled Into Darkness). Quinto later clarified on his site that he wasn’t going to be doing any publicity or ancillary Star Trek product work but he also noted "Obviously I will be a part of any upcoming films… reprising my role as Spock." Note how at the time he said ‘films’ as in plural.


Quinto as Spock in 2009’s Star Trek

So while I’m unsure if Quinto will make a similar clarification of this latest Internet freak-out, I think chill pills are in order. I suspect Quinto will be on board for a third Star Trek film, along with the rest of the cast, as well as the team behind the camera as well. As for a possible fourth Trek movie? Well that is a bigger question we will have to get into later.

ZQ at GQ

While we are on the subject of Zach, please enjoy these photos of the actor from the GQ Men of the Year Party in Los Angeles earlier this week.

 

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Three film contract. He’s coming back for Star Trek Into Light.

I hope that you are right Anthony, I’d really hate it if Quinto left Star Trek out of the blue before the sequel is out.

Like him or not, he was the only actor from the current cast to make rounds on the convention circuit promoting Star Trek 2009. Maybe that was a contractual requirement. Nevertheless, the rest of the cast deems themselves “too cool” for that.

Someone tell Zoe Saldana its pronouned USS Farragut, not Farragot.

Someone tell JJ Abrams the extreme number of lens flares ruined his movie.

Pine needs to gain about 30 lbs of muscle for the role of Kirk

Pegg, you;re good.

Urban, outstanding

Greenwood, outstanding.

Quinto, thinks too much about making lines and doesn’t just “be the character”, comes across as an actor playing a part = bad

Yelchin- accent way too over the top

Cho = horrible in every way

As per Zachs twitter just now:

“simmer down kids. rumors are rumors for a reason. quotes out of context. let’s let the second movie come out before we talk about a third… “

@ #3………LMAO Cause Shat was ALL muscle………yeah….And Yelchin way more accurate……Actually disagree with all your negative points. I enjoyed just about everything about ST09.

Actors are always looking for other projects to get involved with. It is part of the creative process and is a means to earning a living.

I agree with you, #5.

John from Cincinatti: my friend and I were at Wondercon that year. Zoe, Chris, Zachary, Kurtzman, Orci and JJ were there. Can’t speak for the others.

hmmm i think #5 is really Shatner posting on here lol

oops meant #3 *sigh ruined my own joke lol

I didn’t care for the JJ’s Star Trek movie, but I think that David Giuntoli (Nick on Grimm) would make a great Spock.

I agree with Quinto. The sequel is still 6 months away. Why get caught up in him appearing / not appearing in a movie that is yet to be scripted.

If the internet was around when Nimoy was on again off again with his time as Spock with Phase 2 / TMP and TWOK we would have a similar knee jerk reaction in fan forums, twitter, etc.

Looking forward to the trailer on Dec. 14th.

LLAP All.

The cast is under contract for THREE films. Move along…

Gosh! … we need to have fun with something while the premiere of STID does not happen!

… ;-) :-)

I’ve been thinking about this “Into Darkness” thing… what if this time, instead of all the lens flares, they’ve lit it so it’s hard to see everything? I think that would be funny. You know, in an artsy hipster douche sort of way.

But yeah, he’s contractually obligated for 3 Trek films so, duh, of course he’s gonna be in another one after this.

Cash is king. If I knew I had a high-paying gig coming up in two years, I would clear my calendar for it, for sure. “Typecasting” in the age of the Internet is a thing of the past, so blowing off ST3 makes no sense at all.

Sounds like much ado about nothing.

It sounds like he doesn’t want to be typecast as a serial killer.

NuSpock dies in Star Trek into Darkness, returns again in Star Trek into Light, hence the Volcano scenes.

No kidding. He said another role LIKE Spock or Sylar, not that he’d not finish the movies already planned. Sheesh.

It’s ironic that that Tweet is Quinto’s 999th.

It must be a conspiracy.

#3: Oh, right. Shatner’s Kirk was all muscle.

Right.

Thirty pounds, maybe.

But not muscle.

John from Cincinatti: I daresay most fans would disagree w/ your analysis of the cast. Did Shatner have huge muscles? Really? Many fans have critisized Pegg’s performance for being over-the-top and clownish. Un-Scotty-like, if you will. Yelchin was playing it exactly like Koenig played it. And Cho was outstanding. Nice action sequence. So, John…your pearls of wisdom are more than a little off-base.

!!! RANDOM LONG POST ALERT!!!

John from Cincinnati (3) I’ve got nothing better to do right now and your comment is the most interesting so far so here goes.

1. I do like him, Zach that is. Like you said, he interacts with the fans. And isn’t bad on the eyes either.

2. The USS Farragut was destroyed, so Zoe prob won’t need that tip anymore, LOL.

3. The lens flares were definitely out of control. Maybe if it were in just a couple of scenes it wouldn’t have been too bad…but I don’t think it ruined the movie though, imo.

4. Chris is in great physical shape. If he were to gain more muscle than he already has, he would appear out of character. William was a handsome guy in the sixties and he had some natural muscle to throw around but he wasn’t ripped, as we call “ripped” today. Chris has defined muscles, but he’s also taller than Shatner so he has a leaner outline. But I think he probably already has more muscle tone & volume than Shatner had even in TOS…ah, next topic.

5. I completely agree with your assessment of Simon, Karl and Bruce. They are awesome. I’m definitely looking forward to more Dr. McCoy and Mr. Scott screen time.

6. Going off the the things I’ve seen Zach in, I would say that he’s exceptionally talented. Seeing him as Spock before and after watching TOS Spock I’d say that he captures the character well. In some ways even more dynamically than Mr. Nimoy. I speak of the TV series original Spock. I love the character (original Spock) but, imho, I don’t think Spock became more dimensional until The Motion Picture (aside from a few stand out episodes).

Also, Zach was amazing in Heroes. Skylar is one of my all time favorite villains. But if he seems to be forcing it to you, then what example or role do you think this is the case. Maybe I’ll agree or disagree, but would like to know what example you had in mind.

7. Disagree with you on Anton’s Chekov. He potrayed a fresh, young and eager version which, in spirit, isn’t far off from original Chekov. I’ve never met someone who speaks Russian so I can’t say from experience if Anton’s accent was phony or over the top. It sounded real to me. I watched the bonus features for ST09 where Anton and a few others talk about his accent. They seemed to dig it too.

8. Cho was awesome! But I want to see more of Sulu scenes this time around as well.

Oops, Sylar not Skylar, duh.

#21,#22

Actually, Mr. Shatner was in excellent shape for his role as Kirk:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xq13gu_william-shatner-shirtless-star-trek-44-journey-to-babel_shortfilms#.UKm0Jny9KSM

Regards.

I think they could all use about 20-30 pounds. The whole cast looked anorexic.

But Shatner didn’t have muscles, just awesome depositories.

meh, he’s no Leonard Nimoy. Trek could go on without him.

Great post, Anthony, and very detailed.

I said in another thread that there would be a backtrack, and I was right, in a way. The tweet I think explains that he didn’t mean to assert that this second movie would be the last time he’d play Spock.

Of course, his tweet also says that it’s too early to talk about a third movie.

In another connection, I see that narrow ties are in again.

I thought Zachary Quinto was excellent as Spock. In alot of ways very different to Leonard Nimoy, or at least a younger more emotional version. Will be great to see how he gets to develop the character further along with the rest of the crew.

All going well, it would be good to see the cast maintained for some time.

Like anyone of us will quit a high paying permanent job for a lower paying contracted job that can be cancelled on TV at any minute. Yeah right.

Love Quinto, but let’s face it, his career outside of Trek (since Heroes ended) isn’t exactly taking off. I don’t know of anyone who even watches American Horror Story for instance (and if some folks here watch it, would they be watching it if Quinto wasn’t involved? I doubt it). “What’s You Number”, “Girl Walks into a Bar,” “Margin Call”– anyone ever heard of these movies of his from the past two years?

You get the picture (no pun attended) — of course he’ll be back for the big paycheck and notoriety of Trek 3 – HIS CAREER DESPERATELY NEEDS TREK!

@3 “Yelchin- accent way too over the top.”

Like Koenig’s was “restrained.” Right! And BTW, Yelchin is from Russia, dude, so if you think it was over-the-top, then you have obviously never heard real Russians speak.

Koenig’s “Russian” accent is a made up one (and I love Koenig, BTW), while Yelchin’s is the real deal, and that is a fact!

I watch AHS,and not for Quinto. I just like the show and Quinto wasn’t in at at the beginnig anyways. But then again,I like a LOT of things besides Trek,I’m pretty openminded,lol!

J-R!

Whatever happens, please don’t kill off Spock in the 2nd movie this time, since a new Search for Spock would be unlikely to happen!!

@34. “Nobody dies in science fiction.”

@33. I’ll try to find the show and give it a shot.

MJ at it again.
Again your not very original in your Criticism of Quinto.
It’s easier to criticize than to create.
It’s easier to critisize those who do than to be a performer yourself.

I love american Horror story & didn’t watch it for quinto he was barely in it to start with.
& a friend took em to Margin Call because it was relevant & a good film.

1. Langlang – November 18, 2012

—-Three film contract. He’s coming back for Star Trek Into Light.—-

Well played.

@32
Koenig has Russian relatives and knows full well how a Russian person would speak English if it was not their native language.

BTW neither Keonig or Yelchin spoke their Russian accented English authentically.

Yelchin used Koenig as his “inspiration” to pay homage to the character. A good idea I thought.
Koenig originally used an accurate Russian accent and was told to “beef it up” and the Chekov we know was born…

@31 response to MJ

I disagree with Quinto career. I see quinto becoming a serious working actor ,maybe not a huge movie star but an actor’s actor.

I see him been in many indie films that will get top awards. Margain Call was a small budget film that won critical praise. It won Quinto an indie award and was nominated for an oscar.

so yeah… Quinto still has a lot to offer.

MJ-yeah,you should give it a try,it’s not bad. Start from the beginning though,it’s a kinda weird show,lol! But good.

J-R!

#32 “Koenig’s “Russian” accent is a made up one (and I love Koenig, BTW), while Yelchin’s is the real deal, and that is a fact!”

Um, no, it’s not a fact. Yelchin doesn’t have/exhibit a Russian accent, despite being born there. His accent as Chekov was made up, based mostly on Koenig’s Chekov, and it bears about as much (or as little) resemblance to real Russian accents as Koenig’s. (It might be a little more accurate, but it’s not “the real deal.”)

It’s good to defend Yelchin against “John from Cincinatti’s troll-like critiques, but don’t misstate the facts while doing so.

He’s an amazing actor isn’t he? Dude, it’s obvious that it’s reading too much between the lines. They’re connecting this to Spock Prime’s death in WoK!

Logic suggest that his involvement with future Trek films beyond the third will be directly proportional to the pay cheque.

Just one more reason for fans to see this film multiple times. Do it for all trekkies.

Pine isn’t playing Shatner, he’s playing Kirk. There’s a difference!

Isn’t it obvious what’s happening? Spock will die at the end of the movie, saving the Enterprise from Kahn. Then the third film will be “STAR TREK Another Search For Spock”, which Quinto will direct and Spock will be reborn.

My guess is they’ll all do one more after the 2013 movie (a contract is a contract, after all). But as much as I enjoyed ST09? I’d like the whole thing to end with a nice, neat trilogy. I don’t want to see this incarnation of Star Trek become tired and running on fumes.

Always leave ’em wanting a bit more…. ;-)

#32: Uh…. no, no it’s not a fact at all. Yelchin doesn’t have a Russian accent. What’s more, he wasn’t doing an authentic Russian accent in the 2009 Trek film–he was speaking like Koenig. He has mentioned many times, in interviews, that real Russians don’t speak the way Koenig did (the whole “nuclear wessel” thing), but he chose to do it anyway, to remain consistent with Koenig’s approach.

#3: YES! Thank you! You put it perfectly! Took the words right out of my mouth…with perhaps the exception of Cho. I didn’t really have a problem with him, he’s just…boring as Sulu.

Pine definitely needs some bulk….and a haircut. He seems more like a kid trying to pretend he’s Kirk from watching tv.

Quinto is NOT Spock. Never will be. He’s fakey and like you said, he’s working on those lines and comes across as an actor saying them rather than getting into character and BEING that character as Nimoy did. Quinto is Quinto no matter what I’ve seen him in. Nimoy IS Spock whenever I’ve seen him in Trek, but someone else entirely when in other stuff. Mission: Impossible comes to mind. Nimoy is Paris on that show…no Spock to be found. I for one will not shed a bloody tear if Quinto moves on after this one.

Yelchin was just annoyingly over the top with the accent.

Saldana is just….I can’t place it….she’s ok, but irritating at the same time. She doesn’t come across as Uhura to me. And, though it’s not her fault, I HATE the Spock-Uhura relationship being played up as it was.

Greenwood was perfect.

Pegg was perfect.

Urban was DEAD ON perfect!!

Superb casting on the last three. Missed the mark by a mile on the others.

And are me and my wife the only ones who believe the roles of George Kirk and James T. Kirk should have been swapped between the actors playing them? Chris Hemsworth would have been an AWESOME Jim Kirk!! THAT would have been the Kirk we know and love.

#48 – I agree that Hemsworth could have been an awesome Jim Kirk if the movie picked up early in the original timeline’s first five-year mission, but that’s not the story being told. Chris Hemsworth’s George Kirk is what Pine’s Jim Kirk (both the character and portrayal) should aspire to become… and I think that was Captain’s Pike’s point!!

He’ll do all the Star Trek’s he signed up for, which is three. After the 3rd one comes out we’ll see what happens.