Sofia Boutella is trading in her razor-bladed feet from ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ for much heavier visual effects as the lead villain in ‘Star Trek Beyond’.  Previously, Chris Pine‘s Captain Kirk and his intrepid companions have faced off against Eric Bana and Benedict Cumberbatch.  Boutella’s Gazelle was one of the highlights of ‘Kingsman’ so hopefully she can really cut loose in a bigger role here.

Unfortunately, nothing is really known about her new role.  We do know that the Enterprise is living up to its stated mission to “boldly go where no one has gone before” after complaints that the first two movies were too Earth-centric.  So the cast may be discovering this new alien menace at the same time as the audience.  Allegedly the new movie will only feature new alien races, although Boutella’s character bears a resemblance to the Nibiru denizens from the opening of ‘Into Darkness’.

Director Justin Lin commented:

“What we experienced in the TV show hasn’t been touched on yet. That sets up an opportunity for exploration and the deeper you go, the more you are examining humanity. Those are the things that I absorbed as a kid and hope to tap into.”

A behind the scenes clip was uploaded by Screen Crush but was quickly taken down at Paramount’s request. What was shown were Kirk and Chekov (Anton Yelchin) decked out in their heavy duty new away uniforms, as well as Simon Pegg as Scotty, wearing the standard ship uniform.  It appears that Boutella’s character is cooperating with the heroes, so it’s possible her character doesn’t stay bad in the flick or maybe they have to team up against a common threat.

While we don’t have the video, we do have these images to share:

Expect a departure with the new film.  Not only does it have a new writer in Pegg and Doug Jung, but a new director in Lin.  Paramount apparently wanted a movie that wasn’t so ‘Star Trek’-y as the first two, which is ironic because die-hard Trekkers though the movie wasn’t ‘Star Trek’-y ENOUGH and slammed director J.J. Abrams for making them too ‘Star Wars’-y, that is too say, too action-based without the diplomatic tones that the older versions featured heavily.

Even so, this is what Lin said about the new direction:

“Let’s make a western or a thriller or a heist movie, then populate that with ‘Star Trek’ characters so it’s more inclusive to an audience that might be a little bit reticent.”

In other words, geek might be chic right now, but for the average dude bro, let’s not get carried away!

What do you think of Sofia Boutella’s alien look?  What about the crew’s new duds?  What do you want to see in ‘Star Trek Beyond