It seems that that the original Spock is no more, as Leonard Nimoy has said that he plans to retire from acting altogether, and so won’t appear in the Star Trek sequel, or indeed anything else for that matter. He revealed this to the Toronto Sun, telling them, when asked about the future of Spock, that “I want to get off the stage. Also, I dont think it would be fair to Zachary Quinto. Hes a terrific actor, he looks the part, and its time to give him some space. And Im very flattered the character will continue.”
To be honest this isn’t a great suprise, as before Star Trek he’d done very little acting since the late 90s, returning for the 2009 film and then agreeing to appear in a few episodes of TV’s Fringe because, “since J.J. Abrams revived the Star Trek franchise, I felt I owed him something. And Im glad I did it because he promised me a good story (in Fringe), and it was.” However he’s now completed his last Fringe appearance, and it seems that’s it for him on both the big and small screen.
He also suggests he may give up sci-fi conventions, so that he can live in peace and concentrate on his photography, which isn’t all that unreasonable for a 79-year-old. So while it appears it’s the end for the original Spock, at least we have Zachary Quinto to the the character alive.