As ever, the CIA-like secrecy around J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot company has proved remarkably resilient against leaks during, and after, production of "Star Trek 2." We can be pretty sure that it'll involve spaceships. We know that most of the original cast, including Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, and Bruce Greenwood, are returning. We know they've been joined by some new additions, including Alice Eve, Noel Clarke, Peter Weller and Benedict Cumberbatch, as a villain who may be Khan, or may be original series character Gary Mitchell. Beyond that, Abrams has been keeping things as close to the chest as ever.
That could never last forever, however, and overnight it became a little clearer what we can expect the film to be called. And it's "Star Trek Into Darkness." Coming Soon was the first to notice that a company with links to Paramount, Markmonitor, registered the domain names www.starttrekintodarkness.com and www.startrekintodarknessmovie.com, and fan-site TrekMovie has since confirmed via multiple sources that this is indeed the name that Abrams and Paramount have picked for their eagerly anticipated sequel.
Fans of oblique movie title punctuation like ourselves (we're still trying to get our heads around "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol") will spot that that there's no colon in that title. What this means, other than that it's always funny to type the word colon, is unclear, and the 'Into Darkness' part of the title doesn't seem to be giving anything away about potential plot details, other than the standard sequel-takes-on-darker-tone thing — there's certainly no confirmation of Cumberbatch's villainy, or of where the follow might take us, to be found.
All that said, the first "Star Trek" was a terrific surprise, one of the most entertaining summer blockbusters of the last few years, and we've got high hopes for the follow-up. "Star Trek Into Darkness" will hit theaters, complete with sequences filmed in IMAX, on May 17th, 2013.