Star Trek Beyond‘s co-star and co-writer, Simon Pegg, dealt with intense pressure and time constraints when making the upcoming third film in the reboot series.

However, the actor told ComingSoon.Net “it was fantastic fun,” and full of “emotional highs and lows” because the crew was working with a six-month time frame before they went into production. Pegg says writing a film the size of Star Trek Beyond normally takes double that time.

“You write a film of that size, you usually get a year or so, but I think we started maybe six months before we went into production, if that,” he said.

Pegg and the crew managed to finish on time, and even had fun during the turbulent process.

“[We] just stood up to it and did it, and actually by the time we started shooting, it had become pretty fun,” Pegg continued. “It was tense the whole time, but it was a pretty amazing train set to get to play with.”

Star Trek Beyond has a July 22, 2016 release date. Star Wars fans will be the first to see the debut trailer as it accompanies The Force Awakens.