STAR TREK SEQUEL ON THE WAY

It comes as no surprise after the runaway success of the new Star Trek film that a sequel would be quickly announced. MTV has the details:

"All the characters who existed in the universe or canon we grew up with are essentially still around in some capacity," Kurtzman explained. "But their lives have been altered, so they may again intersect with our crew."

"There's a deal in place with the writers and the actors," Abrams said recently of "Trek" sequel plans, explaining that all the key actors are under contract to return. "If people like this movie, and there's a demand for another one, we would be happy to work on it."

Well, they certainly did — and Kurtzman and his writing partner Roberto Orci (who also collaborated on the upcoming "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen") told us that their minds are already swimming with sequel possibilities.

"I don't think we ever need to talk about time travel again," Orci explained, saying that Leonard Nimoy and other "original universe" cast members will likely be unnecessary from here on out. "In fact, in the end of the movie, the device that allows time travel is destroyed. So we're stuck with this universe we're in now."

"Now we're in this new world," Kurtzman agreed. "And we're just gonna have to live through the unpredictable future."

As for ideas in that universe, Orci explained: "We've had a couple of really preliminary conversations, but we really didn't want to [get ahead of ourselves], because this isn't something we invented. We wanted to see what fans think of the first one; let's see what works, and what people think is the best in what we've done. And then we can take that into account when we think about the next movie."

Asked how soon they'd start writing the "Trek" sequel if the first one is announced as a hit the Monday after opening weekend, Orci said: "That day."

"I'm already going back and reading some of the books I've missed," he said of "Trek" tales and fan-fiction that have been written in past years, which could be reinterpreted for their new universe. "I'm trying to read every 'Star Trek' book I can get my hands on. We did that a lot for the first movie. ... I'm starting to re-immerse myself again in what's come before."

I still haven't seen Star Trek but I'm hoping to catch it sometime this week. I'm hoping it's as good as everyone says.