Simon Pegg explains where Carol Marcus was during Star Trek Beyond

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Although the ending of STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS had Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) officially joining the crew of the Enterprise on their five-year mission, the character was noticeably absent from the recent STAR TREK BEYOND. Simon Pegg recently stopped by the Star Trek Podcast for a chat and explained why the character didn't end up being a part of the latest STAR TREK adventure.

With this it felt like we would under-serve her if we included her, she might end up feeling like she hadn't been given the amount of screen-time she deserves, so rather than bring her in and just have her be a supporting role, like, have her not be in this one, and when the time comes [bring her back], the worst thing to do would be to have her in the film and have that character be killed, and that felt like a cynical thing to do. We thought rather than have Carol Marcus not be used to a reasonable capacity, let’s just not include her, have her be alive, in canon, and ready to come back at any time.

Simon Pegg later added that they did have a few lines in an earlier draft of the script which explained her absence by saying that Carol Marcus "had gone off to start work on the Genesis project, some very very early research on that, but it didn't make it into the final cut." For those who need a refresher, Project Genesis project was a scientific research project, led by Dr. Carol Marcus, which was working to to develop a process whereby uninhabitable planets could be made suitable for humanoid life. Project Genesis was featured heavily in both STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN and STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK. I didn't exactly miss her in STAR TREK BEYOND, the film felt busy enough without adding in another character, but I do hope that we'll get to see Alice Eve as Carol Marcus once again when STAR TREK 4 rolls around.

STAR TREK BEYOND is currently playing in theaters.