We try to stay upbeat here at Fandom but it’s hard on days like today. News has broken out that Anton Yelchin has died in a fatal traffic collision earlier this morning.
Yelchin is most recognized for his role as Pavel Chekov in the recent Star Trek films. He’ll be seen in the latest installment, Star Trek Beyond, next month. He also appeared in the excellent thriller Green Room earlier this year. Yelchin was committed to smaller, more personal films throughout his career, giving strong performances in such films as Like Crazy and Only Lovers Left Alive. Yelchin was obviously talented from a young age — he started working when he was eleven years old — and it’s a genuine crime that we won’t get to see where his talents would have led him.
As a Star Trek fan who isn’t quite as on board with the new films as others might be, I found the boyish enthusiasm Yelchin brought to Chekov to be one of the brightest spots in the franchise. The sequence where he has to beam up Kirk and Sulu is my favorite Chekov moment of all time.
This hits close to home as Yelchin was exactly the same age as I am now. Seeing such promise cut short is a cruelty I can’t help but be angered by. 2016 has been a particularly brutal year when it comes to the deaths of pop culture figures and this one stings just a bit more because of our age similarity.
I don’t know what else to say. This news is devastating on so many levels that I can’t quite express myself fully without vehemently cursing up a storm, and I know my editors would frown on such behavior, but sometimes that’s the only response to such awful news like this.
