Simon Pegg will reportedly co-write Star Trek 3

Deadline reports that Simon Pegg is set to write the next movie in the recently rebooted Star Trek franchise. Pegg, who will return to play the role of engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott he occupied in both Star Trek and Star Trek: Into Darkness, is co-writing the script for the yet-to-be-named Star Trek 3 with Doug Jung, the creator of TNT cop drama Deep Blue. Production company Paramount, which replaced the project’s original director Roberto Orci with Fast & Furious director Justin Lin last year, is reportedly aiming to release the movie in time for Star Trek’s 50th anniversary in 2016.

Pegg is obviously a capable writer — he helped pen the scripts for Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End, known as the “Cornetto trilogy” — but it’s his background in geek culture that should excite Star Trek fans. Pegg’s seminal 1999 comedy series Spaced, co-written with Jessica Stevenson, is peppered with the kind of sci-fi references that prove he has the nerdy chops to take the script on.