JJ Abrams' Star Trek movie is taking its sweet time in casting, but it's been making some fine decisions so far. Now to the cast that already includes Heroes star Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy as young and old Spock respectively, and Anton Yelchin (excellent in Alpha Dog) as lover of nuclear wessels Chekov, Abrams has added his Uhura.
The role of the token woman in the band has gone to Zoe Saldana. You probably don't know the name or the face yet – although you may remember her as the immigration officer who falls for Diego Luna in The Terminal and was (oh my god!) a Trekkie – but you'll be seeing her everywhere pretty soon. As well as taking her place on the Enterprise poop deck, she'll also play the female lead in James Cameron's first film in several thousand years, Avatar. In that film she'll play one of the indigenous aliens of a planet that humans are trying to take for themselves.
Avatar will be released in 2009, while Star Trek is set for a Christmas Day, 2008 bow. Now, can we talk about casting Masi Oka as Sulu?