J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies made household names of Chris Pine and his fellow cast members, who have multiple credits beyond the starship Enterprise. The cast of the 2009 Star Trek reboot were well on the way to becoming big stars, with Zachary Quinto rising to fame as sinister supervillain Sylar in Heroes, and Simon Pegg breaking Hollywood with Shaun of the Dead back in 2004. However, their casting as alternate timeline versions of the Star Trek: The Original Series cast pushed them into the stratosphere.

Star Trek was a box office smash on release in 2009, and the cast were soon in demand for a variety of roles, big and small, in major Hollywood movies. In the same year, Zoe Saldaña starred in Avatar, her first major step toward becoming one of the highest-grossing actresses of all time. In the 15 years since Star Trek released, its cast has gone from strength to strength, making it difficult to pick just one great role between each member of the USS Enterprise’s crew.

7

Anton Yelchin (Ensign Pavel Chekov)

Pat in Green Room (2015)

The late Anton Yelchin worked with an impressive list of auteur directors following the release of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek in 2009. The Chekov actor worked with Jim Jarmusch on Only Lovers Left Alive alongside Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton, and starred in Paul Schrader’s Dying of the Light alongside Nicolas Cage. Anton Yelchin’s best role between Star Trek movies was in Jeremy Saulnier’s gnarly crime movie Green Room. Yelchin played Pat, a member of a punk rock band who witnesses a brutal murder in the neo-Nazi bar they’ve been booked to perform in.

As the band try to make their excuses and leave, they find themselves in life-threatening danger as the neo-Nazis refuse to let them leave. Anton Yelchin is terrific at performing the panic of the situation, as he fights for survival against increasingly impossible odds. Green Room is also notable for featuring Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Patrick Stewart as the group’s leader, Darcy. It’s a chilling performance from Stewart as he calmly copes with the brutal violence around him to try “reasoning” with Anton Yelchin’s punk band.

6

Karl Urban (Dr. “Bones” McCoy)

Judge Dredd in Dredd (2012)

New Zealand actor Karl Urban has cultivated a reputation as a cult hero for his roles in Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Boys, and Thor: Ragnarok. Karl Urban’s best role, however, is the performance where audiences never see his face. In Dredd, Karl Urban plays the titular law enforcement officer, who originated in the UK’s legendary comic book anthology 2000 AD. Karl Urban nailed the character of Judge Dredd in a dazzling sci-fi action movie that was brilliantly evocative of the original comics.

Dredd was something of a labor of love for Karl Urban, who insisted on never smiling or removing the helmet throughout the shoot. Urban also insisted on riding Judge Dredd’s iconic Lawmaster motorbike himself, completing his immersion in the role of the comic book legend. Judge Dredd’s monosyllabic, no-nonsense approach to law enforcement was miles away from the wry comedy of Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy in Star Trek, perfectly demonstrating Urban’s range as an actor.

5

John Cho (Lt. Hikaru Sulu)

Jin in Columbus (2017)

Prior to being cast in Star Trek, John Cho was best known for playing Harold Lee in the Harold & Kumar movies. However, since playing Lt. Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek, the actor has taken on some more challenging acting roles in everything from the Karen Gillan-led sitcom Selfie to a small role in Park Chan-wook’s HBO spy thriller, The Sympathizer. However, John Cho’s best role since Star Trek is one of his lesser-seen performances, as Jin in the 2017 movie Columbus.

Jin is stuck in Columbus, Ohio when his father falls gravely ill while in town for a lecture about architecture. In the breaks between nights sat at his estranged father’s bedside, Jin forms a bond with Casey (Haley Lu Richardson) a budding architecture student, who is caring for her sick mother. Star Trek: TNG‘s Michelle Forbes plays Casey’s mother, a recovering drug addict who is on the verge of a relapse. It’s an understated performance by John Cho in a quiet, thoughtful movie about the sacrifices made for family and one’s own ambitions.

4

Simon Pegg (Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott)

Gary King in The World’s End

Outside the Star Trek franchise, Simon Pegg is known as one of the creative minds behind the Cornetto trilogy of movies directed by Edgar Wright. In the trilogy’s third entry, The World‘s End, Simon Pegg gives his best ever acting performance as Gary King, a middle-aged man who can’t let go of his youth. Gary is a tragic figure who has spent his entire life trying to recapture the glory of his youth, with damaging consequences for those around him.

Having done zombie movies in Shaun of the Dead and cop movies in Hot Fuzz, The World’s End was Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s attempt to make an alien invasion movie. It was less well-received by audiences, but that might be down to Pegg’s affecting emotional portrayal of Gary, a performance that is completely different from what he’d done previously. Pegg’s desire to play the less-likable character in The World’s End should have been more widely appreciated, and makes the movie worth revisiting.

3

Zoe Saldaña (Lt. Nyota Uhura)

Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Arguably, Zoe Saldaña is the most successful member of the Star Trek cast, as she is one of the highest-grossing actresses of all time, with her movies earning an estimated total of $11 billion. J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies are just a small part of this impressive total, as Saldaña has starred in three of the highest-grossing movies of all time; Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, and Avatar: The Way of Water. The journey that Saldaña goes on as Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe showed how multi-faceted she is as a performer.

Across five films, Gamora becomes one of the most layered and interesting characters in the entire Guardians team, thanks to Saldaña’s performance. Gamora starts out as an antagonistic figure in The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, becomes the one true love of Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill, before being murdered by her villainous father, Thanos (Josh Brolin) in Avengers: Infinity War. When the effects of Thanos’ snap were reversed in Avengers: Endgame, Zoe Saldaña was then playing an alternate timeline version of Gamora who was much harsher than the character that audiences knew and loved.

2

Zachary Quinto (Lt. Commander Spock)

Peter in Who We Are Now (2017)

Zachary Quinto has moved from the Star Trek universe to the Ryan Murphy cinematic universe in recent years, appearing in multiple seasons of American Horror Story. Quinto is also an accomplished stage actor and in 2022 received positive reviews for his performance as Gore Vidal in Best of Enemies on the West End. However, many will point to Zachary Quinto’s role as troubled veteran Peter in the 2017 indie movie Who We Are Now as one of the Spock actor’s best performances.

Zachary Quinto’s supporting role in Who We Are Now was highlighted for tapping into the emotional nuance of a former soldier living with PTSD. Quinto credited his performance to his director Matthew Newton (via Deadline) saying that “he really gets to the humanity of the characters that he writes in a unique and beautiful way.” Peter is a more grounded and emotional character than Star Trek‘s emotionally repressed Vulcan, but he was just as engaging in the hands of Zachary Quinto.

1

Chris Pine (Captain James T. Kirk)

Edgin in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Since Star Trek, Chris Pine has played Spider-Man, romanced Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), alongside deeper character work in movies like 2018’s Outlaw King or 2022’s Don’t Worry Darling. 2023 saw the release of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which was anchored by Chris Pine’s best and most entertaining role since Star Trek‘s Captain Kirk. As Engin, Chris Pine clearly delighted in playing a charismatic scoundrel, and it was a joy to watch.

The roguish Engin was a welcome reminder of everything that Chris Pine brought to the role of Captain Kirk in 2009’s Star Trek reboot. It also proved that, seven years after Star Trek Beyond, Chris Pine can still lead a big franchise picture. With Star Trek 4 still languishing in development hell, fans may have a long wait before the older, roguish Chris Pine reprises the role of Kirk for one last mission aboard the USS Enterprise.

All three J.J. Abrams produced Star Trek movies are available to stream on Paramount+.