Star Trek: Is There A Place For The Kelvin Timeline Anymore?
2. Tragedy Behind The Scenes
Before Star Trek Beyond hit the screens, two big names involved had died. For legacy fans, hearts were broken when Leonard Nimoy succumbed to COPD, passing away in February of 2015. He was to have appeared in the film in some capacity, but this was relegated to a touching, brief tribute where the character of Spock-Prime is said to have died off-screen.
The second, more tragic death was that of Anton Yelchin, the 27 year old actor who was killed in an accident at his home. Chekov is of course one of the core members of the crew and though all filming had been completed by this time, it was impossible for audiences not to fixate on this as they watched him run around with Kirk. It was a dark and sad chapter of Star Trek's history.
This cloud settled on Beyond so that when it was released, it was all that people could really speak of. The film itself did a valiant effort at turning the franchise around, acknowledging the dangers of it becoming episodic and shaking things up.
But it was not enough. Four years later, Beyond remains the final entry in the Kelvin timeline.