Zachary Quinto says Star Trek 3 will shoot next year, with J.J. Abrams directing?

With J.J. Abrams set to depart Federation space for a galaxy far, far away, there's been a a question mark hanging over the future of the Star Trek franchise following the release of this year's sequel Star Trek Into Darkness. However, during a public interview at the 25th Galway Film Fleadh in Ireland, Zachary Quinto told the audience that he expects cameras to roll on Star Trek 3 in 2014.

"Star Trek 3 should be filming, I suppose, next year," said Quinto (via BuzzHub). "It's going to be made a lot quicker than the last one. That's the plan, although nothing is confirmed yet."

Quinto went on to suggest that J.J. Abrams plans to direct the third Star Trek movie, which seems awfully strange considering the fact that the filmmaker is going to be a little pre-occupied with Star Wars: Episode VII, which is slated for release in 2015. However, don't expect Quinto to reunite with Abrams for the first chapter of Disney's hotly-anticipated Star Wars sequel trilogy, with the actor also going on to state that he had no interest in appearing in Episode VII.