Sci Fi Wire has posted a comprehensive scoop of Star Trek sequel information based on comments from the filmmakers at a Star Trek DVD/Blu-ray release party at the Griffith Observatory in L.A. Even though director J.J. Abrams stresses that he is not yet officially the film's director, it is clear that he is making that point only because there is not yet a script to be the director of. Abrams told reporters, "In theory, I would be available, and it would be fun to do. ... Since there's no script, it's hard to talk about directing a movie that the story doesn't even exist."

As for a year of release, producer Damon Lindelof suggested a nearly definite 2012 release, explaining that, primarily in order to give writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman time to write a solid script, "we would be hard pressed to get it on screens by 2011."

Lindelof made some interesting comments concerning the time period in which the sequel's events would take place in the Trek universe. He told reporters:

One of the things we like to do as storytellers is drop you in the middle of something. ... And the question that you're asking yourself is: Where am I in relation to the last time I left these guys? Could this be something that predated even, perhaps, some of the adventures that they had in the first movie? Does it happen five years later? Is it happening two seconds later? Who knows? So we're not going to tell you.

However, while the film's time travel element certainly gave the writers room to play around with the franchise in their reboot, it seems most likely that the sequel would continue their journey (not precede it). It wouldn't make sense for Abrams to establish his characters so thoroughly only to scrap their relationships for a prequel. On the other hand, though, the director provided a great surprise in his handling of the quasi-rebooting of the characters in his first Star Trek film, so he may very well have some more tricks up his sleeve.

Perhaps most intriguing was Orci's statement that the famous Trek villain Khan has a chance at appearing in the sequel. He reemphasizes that there is no script yet but did not rule out the character by any means, saying, "That'll be kind of a groupthink decision."

Thematically, it had previously been discussed that the sequel would include more social commentary, now that the characters have been set up and brought together. While such a consciousness of theme worried us at first, Orci's comments have calmed our fears for the time being. The writer said, "There's a couple themes up in the air that we're debating about ... but we want them to be invisible, so it won't be until the movie comes out that you'd ever hear what they were." Phew.

All of this sounds good. While the filmmakers certainly seem to have some ideas in mind, they're clearly not getting ahead of themselves and are allowing plenty of time to make sure the script is in a good place before filming. Orci's comments on theme are reassuring, too. As we've said before, if there's anything that can kill a movie, it is letting its message steer the content. Such situations almost invariably lead to movies that force themselves into non-fitting situations instead of letting their plots play out naturally.

Head over to Sci Fi Wire for more information from the event.