geordi_laforgeWoah! Some harsh words coming from the man that encouraged me to read at a young age.

Earlier this week, news has broken out that former Star Trek: The Next Generation star LeVar Burton had some choice words for J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the franchise. Apparently, the subject came up when LeVar was being interviewed by the Toronto Sun. During the interview the Star Trek alumni revealed that he had overheard reports that J.J. Abrams likes his franchise to be considered the only Star Trek.

“(Abrams’ Star Trek) was a great movie, and he brought a whole new generation to Trek. But I’m a little disquieted by things I hear coming out of his camp, things like he would like to be remembered as the only Trek—which would discount everything before he got there.

“There’s ‘breaking the canon,’ which he did (by re-inventing Star Trek‘s timeline). But there’s also honoring the canon. And to pretend to be the only one is really egocentric and immature.

“I just came from a conference in San Francisco with Advanced Micro Devices, and they’re working on technology towards building a holodeck. That was Next Generation. And that’s part of what Star Trek has brought to the culture. So when JJ Abrams says, There should be no Star Trek except the one I make,’ I call bulls—, J.J.”

Wow. Now I know J.J. has said multiple times that he was never a fan of Star Trek before he was offered the project. He has always been vocal about being a more of a Star Wars fan. After doing some digging around I did find a quote that kind of sounds similar to what LeVar is saying, but just in a far less dickish manor.

“I’ve never been a fan of ‘Star Trek. Despite all the stuff that a non-fan would find silly, clichéd, crazy, my goal was to make it feel legitimate.”

Does J.J. feel that the Star Trek franchise was not legitimate prior to his film? That’s kind of hard to say with all the legion of fans, numerous TV series, Movies, Books, etc. What do you think?

Either way, Star Trek Into Darkness hits theaters May 17.

Mike Villarreal is the Community Manager for Nerd Reactor. He loves movies, video games and comics. #OMGWTFBBQ

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