With J.J. Abrams moving from Star Trek to Star Wars, it's been unclear who will fill the director's chair on Star Trek 3. But now, Variety reports that a name has been chosen: Roberto Orci — a newcomer to directing, but a longtime TV and screenwriter behind almost a decade of blockbuster hits, including the first two films in the new Star Trek series.

Orci has writing credits on some of the biggest films of the past decade That's potentially good news for the next film: Orci, along with his writing partner Alex Kurtzman, has shown that he knows how to make an action-filled story, with his writing credits touching everything from Transformers to Fringe. Of course, that's potentially a bad thing too, as it also puts Orci's name on convoluted plots and some big misses, including Cowboys & Aliens and this summer's The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Orci will also be co-writing Star Trek 3. Having written for J.J. Abrams' two films, there's no doubt that he knows the series well. And even though those films moved away from the origins of Star Trek, they managed to balance smart science fiction and big action fairly well nonetheless.

That one of the names behind that move away from the series' origins is now both writing and directing certainly signals the potential for that distinction to continue — something that Orci has been somewhat antagonistic about toward fans pining for a return to form in the past. Still, Star Trek 3 will be his first big exposure. He knows what a blockbuster looks like, and certainly, he'll want this one to be big.