Last week we learned that Zachary Quinto would be playing the youthful version of Spock in J.J. Abrams' impending rendition of Star Trek -- and now we have a new cast member to contemplate. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Russian-born actor Anton Yelchin has been cast as the young Pavel Chekov. One need not be a hardcore Trekkie to recall that Chekov was played by the ultra-cool Walter Koenig in the original Trek series and the first series of theatrical flicks.

For his part, the 18-year-old Anton Yelchin is the offspring of two figure skaters -- and a rather solid young actor. You may remember him from such movies as Hearts in Atlantis, House of D and Alpha Dog, plus he also plays the title character in Jon Poll's Charlie Bartlett, which recently moved from a summer release to November 7. Mr. Abrams is presently hard at work trying to cast the rest of the young-sized Enterprise crew -- plus he aims to cast some big names as the villain and the "grown-up" captain. The as-yet-untitled 11th Trek flick is scheduled for release on Christmas of 2008. (Previous reports on this project can be found here, here and here.)