Why Alice Eve’s Carol Marcus Didn’t Return For Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek Beyond was the second sequel to JJ Abrams’ well-received Star Trek reboot, but why didn’t Alice Eve’s Carol Marcus make a return? Abrams enjoyed success with the first two installments in his rebooted franchise, with Star Trek earning $386 million worldwide while its sequel Star Trek Into Darkness doing even better with a $467 million haul.

Unfortunately for the franchise, Star Trek Into Darkness faced a lot of flack for its needless deception as to who its secret villain was (spoiler alert; it was Khan), and Abrams was soon tempted away from the franchise by making a movie set in a galaxy far, far away. Star Trek Beyond ended up being a ship with a different captain and Abrams’ introduction of classic character Carol Marcus – who first appeared in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, played by Bibi Besch – ended up being left behind.

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There was a period of uncertainty following the release of Star Trek Into Darkness in 2013, and it wasn’t until three years later that Star Trek Beyond arrived. The film wound up being directed by Justin Lin – best known at the time for his work in the Fast & Furious franchise – and had a script written by co-star Simon Pegg and Doug Jung. The sequel enjoyed a decent critical response but profits sadly dipped to a figure even lower than the first film’s box office. Alice Eve’s sort-of love interest Carol Marcus for Captain Kirk in Star Trek Into Darkness didn’t return for Star Trek Beyond, probably to the benefit of Alice Eve. She had said in previous interviews she was game for returning, so why didn’t the character return?

Carol Marcus’ use in Star Trek Into Darkness had already come under flack in the media for not having much of a purpose in the overall story, as well as for having a needless scene of star Alice Eve in her underwear. The reception to the poor handling of her character wasn’t the reason for Marcus’ lack of appearance in Star Trek Beyond, however. Rather, Simon Pegg has gone on record to say that the story – which saw the crew of the Enterprise abandon ship, stranded on a planet by Idris Elba’s mysterious villain – didn’t have a role or a purpose for Carol Marcus. Pegg stated;

“We thought rather than have Carol Marcus be not used to a reasonable capacity, let’s just not include her, have her be alive, in canon, and be ready to come back at any time.”

Rather than overpack an already crowded cast list for Star Trek Beyond, Pegg opted instead to save Carol Marcus for a potential future installment. Sadly, that hasn’t yet come to pass, although Noah Hawley is working on a new Star Trek movie. Whether that includes any of the Kelvin Timelines’ cast, Hawley isn’t saying. Whatever the future holds for Star Trek, it’s looking unlikely Alice Eve’s Carol Marcus will make a return.

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