AceShowbiz -

J.J. Abrams has stated that making "Star Trek 4" is "100|percent| yes," but fans wonder what will happen to the character Ensign Pavel Chekov following Anton Yelchin's death. The producer has now confirmed that Yelchin's role won't be recast in the fourth installment of the rebooted "Star Trek" movie series.

In an interview with Postmedia Network, he said that the filmmakers behind "Star Trek 4" had begun talks on dealing with the death of the actor. "I would say there's no replacing him. There's no recasting. I can't possibly imagine that, and I think Anton deserves better," Abrams said.

Abrams was not sure about how he would address Yelchin's death within the film. When he was asked whether Chekov would be killed or not in the next film, he replied, "I have thought about it, we're working on it, and it's too early to talk about it."

The producer recalled that a tragedy also happened in 2015. Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock in the original "Star Trek" movie series, died when "Star Trek Beyond" was in pre-production. He said, "We knew going into this movie would be a bit of a heartbreak just because of Leonard. We had no idea just how devastating events would become."

Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, John Cho and Karl Urban are set to reprise their respective roles in the fourth installment of the rebooted movie series. "Thor" actor Chris Hemsworth will also return to reprise his role as George Kirk, the father of Pine's James Kirk, who appeared in 2009's "Star Trek".