Beam him up! Fast And Furious director Justin Lin will be heading into outer space as he takes the helm of the third instalment in the Star Trek franchise.

The Taiwanese-born American filmmaker will take over from JJ Abrams, who directed the first two films in the rebooted sci-fi series, his spokesman has confirmed.

Justin Lin
(Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP)

Justin is no stranger to franchises, having directed four of Universal’s Fast And Furious films, including the massively successful Fast And Furious 6, which made more than 788 million US dollars (£506 million) worldwide.

Roberto Orci, the co-writer on the first two Star Trek reboots, had been expected to step into the director’s chair after JJ left to work on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but he left that role in early December.

Roberto will still serve as a writer and producer on the film, which is slated for a 2016 release.

Alice Eve
Alice plays Lieutenant Dr Carol Marcus in Star Trek (Joel Ryan/Invision/AP)

Alice Eve, who will reprise her role as Lieutenant Dr Carol Marcus in the third film, said filming will begin in 2015.

“We’re doing Star Trek next year,” she said, adding: “It’ll be amazing. We changed directors so it’s going to be a wild ride.”