Star Trek Team Boldly Going for Dark Knight Status on Sequel

Neither Star Trek nor Batman Begins reinvented the wheel. But they aimed for the same formula and succeeded. Reboot a dead franchise by having your first movie reintroduce your lead(s) to modern movie-goers with a classic hero's journey. Win over people who never in a million years thought they'd actually enjoy one of "those movies."

So when you get to the sequel, you can head in any direction you please. According to writer/producer Damon Lindelof (speaking to E! Online), they know where they're headed and the Nolan/Batman comparisons won't stop with just the first movie:

"We're looking at a movie like The Dark Knight, which went one step beyond Batman Begins. It was really about something, and at the same time it was a superhero movie. We don't want to abandon all the things that made the first movie work...but we also really want the movie to thematically resonate."

Translation: shit will hit the fan. Maybe there are high-ranking Federation members not crazy about "some punk kid" becoming a Starfleet captain, Spock and Uhara's relationship hits the skids or Scotty and his li'l midget/alien sidekick relieve their sexual tension. Mixed together with plenty of sci-fi action and Bones McCoy.