It has been reported by various sources including Empire Online that Roberto Orci has dropped out of the director's chair and will not be helming the third installment of the the reboot that started in 2009. Orci also dropped out of the Power Rangers reboot movie before taking on Star Trek 3 for undisclosed reasons. Though there are no reports of why he's giving up the big chair, he is still involved with the project as a producer; this leaves fans and moviegoers wondering, who will lead the project?

After several reports of other top directors including Edgar Wright (who dropped out of Marvel's Ant Man earlier in the year) taking the project, Deadline now reports that Orci has been replaced by "Fast & Furious" director Justin Lin.

As reported previously,

With J.J. Abrams currently directing the new Star Wars: Episode 7, Paramount has turned to Roberto Orci (writer for The Amazing Spider Man 2), Abrams' co-writer and producer of both Star Trek and Star Trek: Into The Darkness, to helm the Star Trek 3 movie, set to release in 2016 coinciding with the series' 50th anniversary. Abrams is still on board Trek as producer.

Cast members have expressed their praise in Orci's talents; Karl Urban says this much about the in-development third installment (Quotes via Screen Rant):

"I'm going to meet with J.J. [Abrams] in a couple of days and I'm looking forward to that. And the important thing is that it is going to be phenomenal. Based on what I hear of the concept, it's going to rock and you guys are going to love it.'"

John Cho, who recently participated in a Reddit AMA said this much even though he still hasn't read the script yet:

"I'm absolutely confident in Bob. No one knows these characters better than Bob. And no one knows the Star Trek universe better than Bob. I think he's going to blow people away.'" 

Simon Pegg has even branded the director as the most "Trekkie" of all who have worked on the the reboot (Interview by BBC):

"Bob's been there since the first Star Trek - by that I mean the 2009 one - so it seemed to make perfect sense that he come in as a director on this one because he gets it. He was always the most Trekkie of all of those guys anyway, he's always understood the story the best so it's great that he's going to be involved in the writing and directing."

Here's Orci ealier explaining the plot of Star Trek 3 in a podcast interview for Humans From Earth:

In [Into Darkness] they set out finally where the original series started. The first two films - especially the 2009 [Star Trek] - was an origin story. It was about them coming together. So they weren't the characters they were in the original series. They were growing into them and that continues on in the second movie. So in this movie they are closer than they are to the original series characters that you have ever seen. They have set off on their five-year mission. So their adventure is going to be in deep space.

Even though there are others who have more experience in directing who could've helmed the film, it seems that Orci is the best choice and is right on track with his actors to back him up.

Stay tuned to The Franchise Herald for more Star Trek 3 movie news and updates.