'Star Trek Beyond' news: Director Justin Lin reveals 2 new alien characters

Star Trek Beyond director Justin Lin and two mysterious new charactersParamount Pictures

Director Justin Lin recently shared a new photo via Twitter revealing two new alien characters for "Star Trek Beyond." The name of these characters have been kept a mystery as well as their alien race and which actors are portraying them.

Lin also revealed the photo to be his contribution for "First Contact Day," which is celebrated by "Star Trek" fans every April 5 as it is the day in the series that humans first made contact with the alien race known as the Vulcans in the year 2063, a meeting which propelled humans into interstellar travel. 

The director has revealed on his web site that he will be giving away free "Star Trek Beyond" shirts to anyone who can properly guess which actors are portraying the two characters in the photo.

His only clue is that they have worked with him before, prompting fans to speculate that the smaller alien may be played Sung Kang or Danny Pudi while others suggest that the larger alien might be portrayed by Vin Diesel or even Kim Kold. 

According to a report from Cinema Blend, it is suggested that these two new characters will form an alliance with the film's main villain, Krall, played by Idris Elba. They all have a similar aesthetic, which hints they may be from one alien race or at least related to each other, similar to how Vulcans and Romulans sprouted from the same origins.

The report also points out that the film will most likely share one similarity with "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" in the sense that it may have several secret celebrity cameos and that these two in the photo are just an example of such. However, this has not yet been confirmed and it is possible that the studios will eventually reveal the new cast members.

"Star Trek Beyond" opens in theaters on July 22.