AceShowbiz -

The director seat for the upcoming third installment of J.J. Abrams-produced "Star Trek" trilogy is still vacant, since the director is unlikely to return for the duty due to his commitment to "Star Wars Episode 7". Jon M. Chu and Rupert Wyatt are among the potential candidates mentioned to take over the helm, and Abrams endorses the latter.

"I know Rupert and he's incredibly talented," he said about the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" helmer in an interview with HitFix, "and we'd be lucky to have someone as talented as Rupert. But there are things we're focusing on right now before the director, which is just sort of the fundamentals of where the story is gonna go."

When asked what to expect from the next movie, Abrams coyly replied, "It's too early to talk about details, but there have been a lot of really exciting ideas about what comes next."

The first film in the trilogy was released in 2009, followed by "Star Trek Into Darkness" out in May this year. The sequel which sees Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana and Karl Urban returning to their respective roles ends with the U.S.S. Enterprise crew about to start their 5 year mission. The follow-up story in the third movie is expected to pick up from there.

Although Abrams won't be returning as a director, he will stay onboard as a producer. "I plan to be involved in the story and producing the film and I feel very blessed to be involved at all," he said.