Back in May it was announced that Paramount has already started development on a fourth entry in its relaunched Star Trek franchise, despite the fact we’re still a few days away from the release of the latest chapter, Star Trek Beyond.

Naturally, there are very few details available on Star Trek 4 at present; Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are said to be locked in for a return, and according to Scott Mantz of Access Hollywood, it seems we can add another name to that cast.

Mantz is reporting on Twitter that J.J. Abrams has confirmed that Chris Hemsworth will be reprising his role as George Kirk, the father of Pine’s James T. Kirk, having portrayed the character in the opening scenes of Abrams’ 2009 reboot.

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Given his death in the first movie, it’s possible that George could appear in flashbacks, although the report states that the movie “will bring together Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth”. If that’s accurate, it seems the franchise is going to be delving back into the world of time travel…

“Star Trek Beyond,” the highly anticipated next installment in the globally popular Star Trek franchise, created by Gene Roddenberry and reintroduced by J.J. Abrams in 2009, returns with director Justin Lin (“The Fast and the Furious” franchise) at the helm of this epic voyage of the U.S.S. Enterprise and her intrepid crew. In “Beyond,” the Enterprise crew explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a mysterious new enemy who puts them and everything the Federation stands for to the test.

Star Trek Beyond is set for release on July 22nd and features returning cast members Chris Pine as James Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, Simon Pegg as Scotty, Zoë Saldana as Uhura, Karl Urban as Bones, John Cho as Sulu and Anton Yelchin as Chekov alongside new additions Idris Elba (Luther), Sofia Boutella (Kingsman: The Secret Service), Joe Taslim (The Raid), Lydia Wilson (About Time) and Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog).

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