It seems that Kiwi Karl Urban, who will portray young Doctor McCoy in J.J. Abrams upcoming STAR TREK XI movie, didn’t have to be persuaded to take the role: he’s a lifelong STAR TREK fan and actively went after the role:

Well, I’ve been watching Star Trek since I was, oh gosh, seven years old so I was very familiar with the original series and with those characters. I didn’t actually even have to go out of my way to re-watch old episodes. I’ve just been watching them for over 20 years!

Urban also reveals that his time signing autographs at SF cons was well spent, as he avoids the use of the pejorative term “Trekkie:”

I just will say that the project as a whole is very faithful to the original series and I think that J.J. has a very fresh and exciting approach and I think that he’s an incredibly talented visionary. I believe that he is going to reinvigorate this franchise in a really healthy, positive and exciting way. I really think that the Trekkers and the long time fans will be really pleased with it, because it really does honor the very spirit of what we are all really quite crazy about, in a good way.

Looks like its time to rev up our Karl Urban programme here at SBM!