‘Star Trek Beyond’ Plot: Those Weren’t Jem’Hadar, But New Movie Takes Cues From ‘Deep Space Nine’

With five months between trailers for Star Trek Beyond, the quest for spoilers came down to speculation over a handful of stills and other minor details leaking out from the production. One of the recurring bug hunts was for the ever-elusive Jem’Hadar, a warrior race and enemy of the United Federation of Planets through much of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

An early screengrab from a Star Trek Beyond fundraiser looked a tad like Jem’Hadar, at least enough that people online debated how the Gamma Quadrant aliens could find themselves tangling with the U.S.S. Enterprise of the Abramsverse Alpha Quadrant.

Then Beyond baddie Krall was revealed and people speculated that he might be Jem’Hadar. Finally, Beyond director Justin Lin released a photo of him with two aliens on-set:

Was the alien played by Danny Pudi (on the left) Jem’Hadar?

In each case the answer turned out to be “No.”

But now we finally know just why there are so many vaguely Jem’Hadar looking bros popping up in the Star Trek Beyond alien field guide. Slashfilm spoke with Star Trek Beyond makeup artist Joel Harlow, who said they came up with 50 new alien species to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. The Star Trek universe is traditionally populated with far more humanoids than the Star Wars galaxy’s bestiary. So is it any surprise that several species overlap in appearance with the Jem’Hadar?

While Harlow’s 50 new species put to bed Jem’Hadar speculation surrounding Star Trek Beyond, other details about the plot for the film indicate that Deep Space Nine must have factored into their thinking.

Beyond opens over two years into the Enterprise’s five-year mission. Early in the movie the crew takes leave on the Yorktown space station. Here’s how Beyond co-writer Simon Pegg described Yorktown to Slashfilm:

“It’s a kind of diplomatic hub. It’s called Yorktown, and it’s right on the edge of Federation space, and it’s where all the most recent Federation inductees can come and mingle with each other and learn about each other.”

A space station on the frontier of Federation territory, where mysterious species meet and mingle… that sure does sound familiar. While Deep Space Nine (DS9 ’s titular space station) is technically Bajoran, rather than Federation, controlled, it’s easy to see the thematic overlap at play. The Yorktown is where the Federation’s model of civilization butts up against competing empires and interests, a liminal point where the ideals of the Federation are tested by bewildering alien diversity of the galaxy.

So while the Jem’Hadar won’t be appearing in Star Trek Beyond, some of the plot and settings sound like the closest we’ll ever get to a Deep Space Nine movie.