Last year Paramount caught people off guard with a poster for the upcoming J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie. This year they have another poster. It’s less colorful. It provides just a little more information than last year’s did, giving a more specific release date: Christmas, 2008. Personally, I prefer last year’s poster, but I guess this keeps Trek in the public eye.

Along with the poster, Paramount and Abrams officially announced the two Spocks for Star Trek: Zachary Quinto from “Heroes” and Leonard Nimoy. According to Sci Fi Wire, Abrams also addressed the recent comments online that Nimoy was in and Shatner was out. Abrams told the crowd that they are trying to find a way to include William Shatner but, The truth is, it needs to be worthy of him. So, we’re on that.”

New poster, confirmation of casting, and hope for Shatner to be a part of the project. Sounds like a pretty good panel, although no hint or confirmation on who will play the young Kirk.

Here’s a thumbnail copy of the new poster. Click on it to see a high resolution version Paramount was kind enough to send over.