Rather than pummel you all with daily updates on minutae I'm planning on doing once/twice weekly groupings of Beyond news.
The starter here has to be those single sheet posters of the main cast (including Jaylah and Krall). The eagle-eyed will have noted that the Sulu, Scotty and Uhura ones were pulled when fans noticed the mirrored delta insignias on the uniforms but they were back up within a matter of hours airbrushed and correct. We are a fussy bunch aren't we?
I do like the fact that they've incorporated the delta into the overall design with each person having a distinctive colour too. Also you do get a much better look at the alien ship design that features so fleetingly in the two trailers to date and appear to be the cause of the Enterprise's demise. Certainly they have been a prominent element of the lead-up to this point and I would think we'll be seeing an edition of the Starships Collection with it in relatively soon.
This campaign is a lot more vibrant than either the '09 or '13 promotions and I hope it's an indication of a more optimistic movie. It's certainly giving off positive vibes if nothing else and the choice to do something different seems to have gone down well from what I've been hearing.
This single-sheet concept is a similar strategy to what was run during Into Darkness and we've even had an animated poster in the retro-style of The Motion Picture. Again if you think back to 2013 and the reboot sequel there was an animated version of the first Khan poster with London on fire. Have they run out of new ideas for this campaign? Are we likely to see a viral website pop up or will that be skipped this time out?
We have seen some more promo materials drop including an extensive range of Funko Pop! figures including the whole crew, Krall and Jaylah plus two extras including Kirk in Survival Suit and another which has not been revealed as yet (number 355 if you're keeping track). Rumour has it that it might be Spock in his Franklin uniform but could it be something more integral to the movie that they want to keep hidden until its release...?
We have seen some more promo materials drop including an extensive range of Funko Pop! figures including the whole crew, Krall and Jaylah plus two extras including Kirk in Survival Suit and another which has not been revealed as yet (number 355 if you're keeping track). Rumour has it that it might be Spock in his Franklin uniform but could it be something more integral to the movie that they want to keep hidden until its release...?
So with new posters we also received two new TV spots. Shame of the matter here is that there is zero new footage contained within either and therefore utterly pointless talking about them. For note one was spotted during the England versus Russia game on Friday 10th June but so far that seems to be it. They exist is about as much as I can say and at least Paramount are promoting the film which has just about a month and a half to go until it premieres. Happy days!
You can check them out below:
Perhaps a more interesting point to come out of the news surrounding Beyond is that Karl Urban had to be convinced to return for this third movie. It's hard to imagine anyone else fitting into the team after building relationships through the previous two movies but y'know, it might have happened. It also seems that Justin Lin had a very positive effect on the movie, making Urban realise it was worth sticking around for one more time.
Apparently Beyond will continue to develop the Spock/Uhura relationship as suggested in a chat with Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana recently plus attune the reboots more to the characterisation and feel that was part of The Original Series (doesn't that feel like cross-purposes?) but I'd rather be judging that once I see the finished product on the screen in just over one month's time. One thing that is emerging however is that we will see a very different crew and ship to what we saw in Into Darkness. Instead of being fresh-faced, they're worn out, tired and in need of a break after two and a half years of exploring the final frontier.
So that's all. Seriously, this is the most under-the-radar promotion campaign I've ever seen for a Star Trek movie. As I noted on the podcast it could be some sort of reverse psychology thing and actually the point is we're talking about it more because there's so little to go on. At least it'll keep us all guessing right up to the closing credits, right?!
Ok so yesterday we got a cracking new photo set on the bridge of the Enterprise looking from the view screen back at the bridge. There's a lot more blue tone going on with this bridge than I remember from Into Darkness but that's not a bad thing.
Why am I getting all excited about this? Take note that the bridge does look fairly unchanged from the set we saw in Into Darkness, look at the characters included here. For one there's no Scotty on the bridge and secondly there are a few new alien faces In there. There's a discernible new alien in red to the left BUT the real question is, who is the alien directly behind Sulu?
Look more closely and you'll see that the alien isn't wearing a standard Starfleet uniform. In fact it bears no Starfleet insignia and although its the same colour as the survival suit it has black shoulder colourings rather than the gold that Kirk and Chekov sport. Interesting that this is the only person in the shot wearing this outfit. One for us to think about perhaps. From memory I think this guy actually turns up for a split second in the trailer but not in this costume.
UPDATE
Ok so yesterday we got a cracking new photo set on the bridge of the Enterprise looking from the view screen back at the bridge. There's a lot more blue tone going on with this bridge than I remember from Into Darkness but that's not a bad thing.
Why am I getting all excited about this? Take note that the bridge does look fairly unchanged from the set we saw in Into Darkness, look at the characters included here. For one there's no Scotty on the bridge and secondly there are a few new alien faces In there. There's a discernible new alien in red to the left BUT the real question is, who is the alien directly behind Sulu?
Have you spotted any new info on Star Trek Beyond? What do you think it's all about?
