Actor Zachary Quinto’s ears must have been burning.

As he began work on rebooting the “Star Trek” franchise in 2008, director J.J. Abrams girded himself for a long global casting search to find his Spock. Whoever inherited Leonard Nimoy’s pointy lobes, after all, would be compared to the most iconic alien to ever beam into pop culture.

But before Abrams could even start on the massive undertaking, his childhood friend, actor Greg Grunberg, swooped in to rave about his co-star on the hit television series “Heroes.”

When Abrams met with the Pittsburgh-raised Quinto — who played a superpowered serial killer on “Heroes” — it was, as Spock himself might say, clear there was one logical choice.

“Well, I was the first person to be cast in the film,” Quinto, 33, told The News after the London premiere of “Star Trek Into Darkness,” which opens Friday.

The Trekkies responsible for the 2009 sci-fi reboot knew that Quinto would be perfect for the role the moment he got into costume.

“The first time the ears went on, Zach turned to us and said, ‘Well?’ ” screenwriter Damon Lindelof recalls. “But we were too busy jumping up and down and hugging each other to respond.”

Fast-forward four years to this second trip aboard the USS Enterprise, and it’s Quinto doing the jumping up and down — not to mention the nonstop running — as Spock monopolizes the cool action beats in the new flick.

In “Into Darkness,” Spock locks wits with Chris Pine’s Captain James T. Kirk and locks lips with Zoe Saldana’s Lt. Uhuru as the Enterprise crew is sent to chase down a vicious terrorist (Benedict Cumberbatch) without sparking an interstellar war.

“There were about two or three days on the movies where all I did was literally run for 10 hours,” says Quinto. “Sprinting 80 yards and then going back and sprinting 80 yards again, but I love how it translates in the film.”

He’s even gotten used to sitting immobile for three hours as makeup artists put on the ears and the Vulcan look. Quinto says he uses the time to get into an “inner life and meditative state.”

“It’s a unique kind of challenge,” says Quinto of playing a hero whose idea of showing his feelings is arching an eyebrow.

“Would I love to be able to flail about and gesticulate and express whatever it is that the character is feeling? Maybe. But that’s not Spock.”

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Check out Zach, Chris, J.J Abrams’ interview with Moviefone Unscripted. Watch the interviews at the links below:

Unscripted – Star Trek Into Darkness – Complete Interview
Unscripted – Star Trek Into Darkness – Viral 01 – Chris Pine in Spandex
Unscripted – Star Trek Into Darkness – Viral 02

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