J.J. Abrams Unveils First Star Trek Into Darkness Clip—All Three Frames of It!

Director hypes the next Star Trek installment on Conan by revealing a tiny snippet of Spock in a volcano

By Josh Grossberg Oct 05, 2012 3:24 PMTags
Star Trek Into DarknessYoutube

Maybe they should've called it Star Trek: The Search for Celluloid.

Stopping by Conan last night, director J.J. Abrams provided host Conan O'Brien and Trekkies the world over with a brief—and when we say brief, we mean "blink and you'll miss it"—clip of Star Trek Into Darkness, the highly anticipated sequel to his hit 2009 franchise reboot.

But because Paramount brass were reluctant for him to drop any bombshells of the blockbuster before the studio rolls out its marketing campaign (which we'd argue Abrams' interview with Team CoCo cleverly kicks off), the filmmaker was happy to oblige, bringing with him just three frames as he's still in the midst of editing it.

"Paramount was really unhappy with me at the idea of bringing anything. I told them I really wanted to do it, and they said, 'It's gotta be really short," Abrams told the funnyman. "I said, 'OK, I can bring one,' and they said, 'It can't be longer than three frames.' It's three frames but it's all there."

And what a tease it was!

According to Abrams, the footage features the young Spock, played by Zachary Quinto, in a volcano (and wearing a "crazy suit") for reasons that you'll have to see STID to get.

Needless to say, the three frames Conan aired whizzed by at warp speed and made for a good laugh. They also garnered a standing ovation from O'Brien, who suggested Netizens would end up freeze-framing it on their computer to dissect it.

What a bold prediction. Take a look!