Deadline reports that Star Trek Beyond officially will be released in IMAX theaters worldwide on its July 22, 2016 opening. This is hardly a surprise, since Paramount Pictures recently adjusted the film’s release date to gain entry to more IMAX theaters, but now that it’s official, you can once again edify your friends about how those IMAX projector screens at AMC theaters won’t give them a real IMAX experience. Speaking of a real IMAX experience, there’s no word yet on whether director Justin Lin used IMAX cameras to shoot this film—as director J.J. Abrams did for Star Trek Into Darkness—or whether the movie will simply be digitally remastered for IMAX screens. The latter means the action won’t be at as high of a resolution as if it were shot with IMAX cameras and won’t fill a legitimate IMAX screen, thus making your IMAX vs. LIEMAX lecture kind of moot.
Regarding the actual story of the film, we still don’t know much beyond that Simon Pegg (who plays Scotty in the films) was hired to write the script after the suits at Paramount considered a draft by original Beyond director Roberto Orci to be “too Star Trek-y.” Considering that the chief complaint about Abrams’ first two Enterprise journeys is that he took a lot of the Star Trek out of Star Trek, the “more inclusive” approach of Pegg’s script might not be seen as good news by hardcore fans. Still, Pegg has promised that he remained true to the “spirit” of the original show, which, if he wasn’t concerned with philosophical quandaries, might just foretell a lot of eyeliner and torn tunics. But now, you get to see those things in IMAX.