EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures, Skydance Productions and JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot just set Justin Lin to direct Star Trek 3, filling the biggest open directing assignment out there with the filmmaker credited with reviving the Fast & Furious series. Lin helmed four of the films that grossed $1.9 billion in worldwide box office.

He replaces Roberto Orci, who got that job after being involved as co-writer of the revamped Star Trek series. The first two installments were directed by Abrams, who then left to direct a revival of the Star Wars franchise with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I reported that several top-ranked filmmakers were in contention, but I’m told that Lin was the only one offered the job. He is available because he was going to direct the sequel to The Bourne Legacy spinoff with Jeremy Renner, but that film got postponed when Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass agreed to do another installment of The Bourne Identity, which Universal wants to come first. Lin was courted to return to the Fast & Furious franchise to do a multi-part finale, but I am not sure whether that will be in the cards in light of the Star Trek job. Orci remains a producer on the Star Trek film. The first one grossed $380 million worldwide in 2009, and the sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness, grossed more than $460 million worldwide after opening in May 2013.

Lin is repped by CAA, Cinetic Management and Sloss Eckhouse Law Co.