J.J. Abrams Says STAR TREK 4 Features His Favorite Story So Far

Days before Star Trek Beyond officially hit theaters, Paramount announced that they're making a sequel that will unite Chris Pine's Captain Kirk with his father, George Kirk. It's the role that launched Chris Hemsworth to international fame, and even though his character died in the opening minutes of 2009's Star Trek, he'll be back to reprise the role in the untitled Star Trek 4.

EW caught up with producer J.J. Abrams at Wednesday night's Comic-Con premiere of Beyond, and Abrams had some very interesting things to say about the story of the newly-announced fourth film: he said it's his "favorite Star Trek story that we've had."

"So one of the reasons I'm hoping [Star Trek Beyond] does well is so that we can, without question, get that movie made. It really is an amazing story. It's really the reason we made the deal with Chris Hemsworth as soon as we could because we really wanted that story to be told, so fingers crossed."

On one hand, it's a little odd to hear him come out and admit that the story for a movie they haven't made yet is better than the one he's currently promoting, because the general attitude in Hollywood is to just hype the thing that you're selling in that moment. But on the other, I guess he's sort of indirectly promoting Beyond by saying that the only way Star Trek 4 will actually get made is if people go see Beyond. Weird.

Are you looking forward to Star Trek 4? If you've seen Beyond, let us know what you think of that one as well. You can read my review here.