With Variety reporting that talented up-and-comer Alice Eve (She’s Out of My League) is the latest actor signing up for J.J. Abrams’ follow-up to Star Trek, speculation immediately turns to who she’s going to play. You can stop fancasting though, because they’re also reporting that she’s playing an entirely new character to the franchise. Admittedly I’m sort of bummed out, since Eve would make a pretty convincing (and smoking hot) Janice Rand.

For those unfamiliar with early Trek lore, Rand was Kirk’s yeoman (think “secretary from space”) for the first half of the first season. Her presence was one of the first instances where we learned what pervy depths Kirk would go to for some tail, as he made it pretty clear he’d be interested in tapping that should the opportunity present itself. It didn’t hurt that Grace Lee Whitney looked pretty amazing in that short Starfleet outfit. But it wasn’t to be, as rumored offset issues got in the way of her continuing on with the show at the time. Though she later returned and was promoted to Chief Petty Officer in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

My weird Trek-crush aside, I don’t want to sell Eve short. She’s got the chops to play something far meatier than space cleric. And she’s been floating around genre roles for awhile, as she originally was up for the role of White Queen in X-Men: First Class before bowing out of contention. If the plan is to continue onward with Spock and Uhura’s relationship, then I suspect whatever role Eve plays will automatically be a love interest for James T. Kirk. Must be a tough life that Chris Pine leads…

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