MTV reports that Alpha Dog star Anton Yelchin has joined the cast of J.J. Abrams upcoming reworking of the Star Trek franchise.
Yelchin will portray Pavel Chekov and fans will be happy to learn that Yelchin himself is, in fact, Russian by birth.
The character was first introduced during the second season of the original Star Trek series, an inexperienced crewmember of the initial Enterprise.
ReelzChannel brought the prior Star Trek casting news from Comic-Con of Zachary Quinto as the new Spock, but many big roles are as-yet unfilled. Of course, the biggest fan speculation revolves around Captain Kirk, which was previously played by the irreplaceable William Shatner. Matt Damon has been rumored as has Ben Affleck, although those rumors seem to have been dispelled by this point.
We'll keep you posted as more casting news comes down from the deck of the future Enterprise!