WATCH: STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS First Look Featurette

On Monday, Paramount Pictures released a short featurette to introduce STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS. The video features scenes from the film interwoven with quotes from directror J.J. Abrams and the film’s stars Zachary Quinto, Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana.

“The goal for this movie was definitely to up the ante as much as we could.” Abrams said.

“There are a lot of characters that people are anticipating seeing — Kirk and Spock, Bones, Scotty, Uhura, Chekov and Sulu.”

“I am more excited than I can tell you.” Abrams teased.

“The action in this movie, the scale of the movie is lightyears beyond what we did in the first movie.” he said, referring to the 2009 Star Trek film.

“It was pretty magical to see what they could create this time.” Zachary Quinto recalls. “It’s stunningly beautiful.”

The film, which was shot in 2D and will be converted to 3D in post production, will be shown on both 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D screens upon its release.

“This is the kind of film that 3D is made for.” said Zoe Saldana.

Abrams, who has worked on several film and television projects in the past, went on to say “Without question, the IMAX and the 3D [aspect] of it I think will give viewers yet another level of excitement. This movie was the most fun and challenging experience that I’ve had. This is like everything I;ve ever done wrapped into one movie.”

Check out the video below.

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Weller, Bruce Greenwood and Alice Eve, hits theaters on May 17, 2013.