Official - 18 year old Anton Yelchin is Chekov

[Franklin]

dalehoppert said:
Another mention in this article of the freaking Academy setting... I'm sorry but if it turns out the TOS crew all went to the academy together like it was Star Trek High or something, I'm going to be disgusted.

"We're going on a training cruise and you all are the crew we've selected for this mission... Jimmy Kirk, you'll be in command... Nyota, you take communications... Ummm, Misters Sulu and Chekov, you take the helm and navigation positions...and our new Vulcan exchange student Spock here will be your first officer, Jimmy. Monty, you go run engineering..."

My thoughts, exactly.

That's why I'm taking the casting list with a grain of salt. Even if it's the real age ranges desired for the actors, that doesn't mean that a 24 or 25 year old cast as Kirk couldn't play him at 30, or a 28 year old cast as McCoy couldn't do him at 36. IMO Quinton could pass for TOS era Spock right now even though he's five years younger than Nimoy was in 1966.
So, if Yelchin is Chekov, his age isn't that far from being able to pass for when Chekov was (FOR SURE) on Enterprise. And, the rest of the actors are playing even older ages.

Could be (COULD be) Abrams wants to cast young to get maximum believability (and energy) out of the actors in any subsequent movies. Cast a little young now, and if you want to do another TOS era movie in 2013 with the same cast, they won't be too long a tooth.
Let's say Kirk is supposed to be 30 in XI. If the actor cast for the role is 35 or 36, even though he can play 30 right now, there may be a problem if you want him to be Kirk at 32 in the 2013 movie.

Then again, it's a poor air quality day here, and that could be affecting my thinking.

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

The fact is, Yelchin is an up-and-coming young star. He has a couple of movies coming out, one of which -- 'Charlie Bartlett' -- seems to have a chance of being a hit. Who knows, by this time next year Anton Yelchin may be extremely popular. Maybe Abrams' team has also realized this and wanted to cash in on Yelchin's potential future popularity (while the actor is still relatively cheap).

 

[Opus]

Sec31Mike said:
The teenagers serving aboard warships in the modern Navy are most likely 19 year old ENLISTED personnel. Even if someone fast tracks through the academy they become an Ensign when 22. At that point they are still baby faces.

That just doesn't make sense to cast an 18 year old.

I know plenty of 18 year olds that can pass for 22. Hell, I could pass for 25 at 18.

And it's amazing what make-up can do these, or any day really.

Why are people so hung up about this, really? He's not an actor of 18 playing the part of an 18 year old! He's an actor, like all actors, that can play an age RANGE, people. You know, like Ralph "The Karate Kid" Macchio did playing a 17 year old when he was 28? Just think it in reverse and get over it.

Sheesh...

 

[Opus]

Aragorn said:

OphaClyde said:

jon1701 said:
The problem with the Internet these days is that the different sites use each other to corroborate the stories.

But sometimes it can be fun if you ever wanted to spread rumors on the 'net and wreak some havoc...

Oh... Ummmmm... not that I would do anything like that...

Hmmm... okay, you start a rumor on here about Jake Gyllenhaal playing Kirk's older brother and I'll refer to it on Ain't It Cool News, then I'll post it in IMDB and refer to both Trek BBS and AICN, and then we'll see what happens.

Wait. Pick one site that is going to be your mark. Then you have to be a bit subtle. You have to come up with a good background, like your sister's friend works as an assistant for a Paramount suit, blah, blah, blah, and drop a few high mucky-muck names. Say she saw a memo that read blah blah blah. Then you have to wait for a story to JUST break, and add that news to false information you just made up and send right away. As that first bit of rumor hits, you send a follow-up e-mail right away to your mark with a link showing that some of your "info" has been "corroborated" on a competitive site that gives credibility to the rest of your "inside informational source" and let the fun begin...

...Wait! Uhhhh, like I said... I've NEVER done this before! Honestly! Yeah, that's the ticket...

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Sec31Mike said:
The teenagers serving aboard warships in the modern Navy are most likely 19 year old ENLISTED personnel. Even if someone fast tracks through the academy they become an Ensign when 22. At that point they are still baby faces.

That just doesn't make sense to cast an 18 year old.

Maybe Chekov is supposed to be 22 years old. That way, after three movies total spanning 6 years total real world time but only a couple movie-time, our Chekov will still look about the right age. The disconnect between movie-time and real world time is a good reason to skew younger for all the actors vs their characters' ages. I doubt the plan is to do one movie and stop.