Oh what a relief. Earlier this week we brought you the news that J.J. Abrams had been hired to resurrect Star Trek as a feature film, and that to do so he’d be making a prequel starring very young versions of Kirk and Spock. But forget all that. J.J. is on board, but he says that really terrible prequel idea is a load of crap. At least he kind of says that.

Abrams sat down and talked to Empire Online about his newly announced project, and put fan fears to rest: “The whole thing was reported entirely without our cooperation,” he says. Exactly who “our” is he doesn’t say. His production team? Paramount? The story was originally reported by reliable, respectable sources like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, so it isn’t like some AICN scooper snuck in to his production office and stole a copy of his Paramount contract. But he continues, “People learned that I was producing a Star Trek film, that I had an option to direct it, they hear rumours of what the thing was going to be and ran with a story that is not entirely accurate.” Again though, it isn’t like this story was reported by TrekFanboy.com. It came through respectable channels. Either those respectable channels were duped, or perhaps Paramount saw how much everyone hated the leaked plot idea and told Abrams to forget it and go his own direction. Or maybe what we had wrong was that Abrams was directing while he hasn't decided yet and the horrible Kirk/Spock thing is true?

I'm inclined to believe the part we all had wrong was the part we all hated anyway, since Empire says that's what he meant and they actually talked to him. Abrams himself doesn't say what the movie will be about, but Empire insists that he indicated it won't be about a young Kirk and Spock at the Academy. Abrams however claims to be an original series Star Trek fan, and as a Trekker he hopefully knows that Kirk and Spock didn’t meet until Kirk took command of the Enterprise. But as a self-proclaimed original series fan, he also might end up setting his movie around that time period, just not using some lame academy plot that spits in the face of forty years of continuity. Instead, a few established characters might pop up... hopefully just in guest spots: “Those characters are so spectacular. I just think that… you know, they could live again," says Abrams.

Alright everyone, we might be able to relax. It sounds like Star Trek, for the first time since Gene Roddenberry’s death, may at last be in good hands. Abrams is a brilliant choice to try and bring the once great franchise back to life, and if he really does create a new story set in the original series universe then I’m definitely on board. You should be too. With Abrams in charge expect not just a good Star Trek movie, but a good movie in general, something Star Trek hasn’t strived for since the brilliance of Wrath of Khan. Though they probably should have let Star Trek rest a bit longer before resurrecting it, early or not, there’s good reason let yourself get excited about Trek again.