Jennifer Lawrence Is The Inspiration For This Star Trek Beyond Character

Jennifer Lawrence is not physically in the new Star Trek movie, but she's definitely there in spirit. According to Vulture, the movie's co-writer, Simon Pegg, who also plays Scotty (as in "beam me up"), said in a press conference that when he was writing Star Trek Beyond, he was thinking of Lawrence's character in 2010's Winter's Bone. In that film, Lawrence plays a spunky Ozarks teen who has to figure out a way to save her family. For Pegg, the strong female role (which earned Lawrence first Oscar nomination), ended up becoming the inspiration for a new character in more ways than one. “We were trying to create this very independent character. But we didn’t have a name for it,” Pegg explained. "So we just called it 'Jennifer-Lawrence-In-Winter’s-Bone.'" But, as Pegg pointed out, that's a very long name, so he worked on trying to shorten it. "It started getting tiring always saying, 'Well Jennifer-Lawrence-In-Winter’s-Bone is fighting here,'" he said. "So, then, we started calling her J-Law. And then she became Jaylah.” Get it? Now, every time Jaylah, played by Sofia Boutella, kicks butt, you'll know it's all in honor of Jennifer Lawrence.

Star Trek Beyond hits theaters July 22.