At the press day for Kill Me Three Times yesterday, Age of the Nerd had the pleasure of speaking to Simon Pegg about the film. While we will run the full interview closer to the film’s release date of April 10th, Pegg did offer some insight into the process of writing Star Trek 3 (As well as shooting Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation). During our chat, Pegg spoke briefly about how he ended up joining the project as writer, the intense pressure that he feels to make Star Trek fans happy with the newest installment, as well as what direction the new film will head.

Here’s how he joined Star Trek 3 creative team to begin with:

Well, I don’t want to talk about it too much because we are here for this one [Kill Me Three Times] obviously, but I yeah. It was just kind of conversations I was having between J.J. and Bryan Burke and they decided to kind of restart the process. And because I had been on set with Burke [For MI5], he said “maybe you should come on and write it with Doug [Jung], and Justin [Lin], and him, and Lindsey Webber”.

When talking about the pressure that he felt to say yes to writing Star Trek 3, Pegg commented:

I kind of, I felt like—no, I don’t want to, it’s too much pressure—but we just want to take it forward with the spirit of the T.V. show.

Finally, Pegg commented on the direction that the story of Star Trek 3 might take:

You know, it’s a story about frontiersm, and adventure, and optimism, and fun. That’s where we want to take it. You know where no man has gone before—where no one has gone before—ostensibly corrected, for a slightly more enlightened generation. But yeah, that’s the mood at the moment.

It has already been announced that Star Trek 3 will hit theaters a few months before the property’s 50th anniversary, and all signs seem to lead the third entry back towards creator Gene Roddenberry’s original vision even more than ever. While Pegg obviously can’t give plot specifics this early on, it did seem evident that Pegg was very excited about the challenge of making a movie that truly represents what the franchise is about. I honestly think that Simon Pegg is a great screenwriter, and that his increased creative presence in the franchise can never be a bad thing. Star Trek 3 hits theaters on July 8, 2016.

In the meantime, read our review of Kill Me Three Times Here.