Paramount Pictures(NEW YORK) — Zachary Quinto can be seen in his third go ’round as Mr. Spock in Star Trek Beyond. In a chat with ABC News, Quinto admits he was nervous to meet the late Leonard Nimoy before getting the chance to play the actor and director’s younger self.
However, the pair unexpectedly became close friends, Quinto says, making Nimoy’s death in 2015 especially hard. “It just became a really, really profound and important relationship, and I miss him.”
Although Nimoy is gone, he’s a part of Star Trek Beyond, Quinto explains. “I feel like it was very important for me to find a way to include him in this film. and I thought that Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, our writers, did a beautiful job of really weaving him into the narrative, and not having it be a fleeting acknowledgement…”
Quinto adds, “A lot of audiences responded really, really positively to that.”
The cast also had to weather the death of another former castmember, Anton Yelchin, who was killed in a freak car accident in June.
His character, Pavel Chekov, won’t be re-cast by Trek reboot series producer J.J. Abrams, and Quinto agrees with the decision. “To honor him and the beautiful work in these movies, we’ll find ways to honor him and celebrate him, but not try to ever put somebody in his place, because that would be impossible anyway…He was an incredible guy. We miss him.”
Star Trek Beyond debuted in first place over the weekend, earning an estimated 59.6 million dollars.
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