Kevin Smith Says Star Trek 4 Should Get Rid Of Chris Hemsworth

After a rough couple of years, Star Trek appears to be in rude health right now.

The Kelvin Universe big screen movies have, for the most part, been pretty well received by fans, Star Trek: Discovery is about to launch into what looks like a very exciting second season, CBS has promised us multiple new Trek TV projects, Patrick Stewart’s returning and Quentin Tarantino’s tantalizing entry into the franchise will probably take flight after he’s done with Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Of course, there’s also the as yet untitled Star Trek 4, which appears to be inching closer and closer to production.

Or at least, it was, until Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pine dropped out due to salary disputes, sending the project into a tailspin as Paramount now scrambles to figure out how to move forward from here. There’s still no word on what the studio plans to do, but Kevin Smith has taken to his Fatman on Batman podcast to weigh in on the issue and though he said that he really wanted to see both Chrises in the film, if one has to go, it needs to be Hemsworth.

I think Star Trek really has no choice. They can’t recast. Chris Pine is fantastic. It was chancy bringing another Kirk into the world. They found the one guy who could pull it off where it doesn’t sound like an impression, but it totally homages an entire f–king body of work in a character. So, you got to bring him back. Maybe you let go of the dad storyline if you can’t get Hemsworth to come down a little bit. But, you can’t do those Star Treks without that Kirk. He was great.

Smith’s co-host Marc Bernardin also offered up some thoughts, explaining that we have Hollywood greed to blame for all this, saying:

I hope they work out the money thing. I can play mediator if they want. I will be like “Come on man, everyone wants to see this.” You know what the problem here is? Agents are involved. I could just get rid of their agents and talk sense to those actors, I bet they would want to do it, because it sounds like a f–king fun movie. But somebody out there is “No, they got to get paid, these are the dollars that are going to last them into the years of their lives,” and blah blah blah.

I’m all for people getting paid, but that’s too good an idea to leave behind. But, if they don’t make enough money to support that financial decision, then maybe they got to meet in the middle. They got to boldly go where no man has gone before. I hope so, because I like that guy and I think that idea is a really good idea.

Smith makes some good points here. Paramount can’t recast Pine and they also can’t really make the movie without him. I mean, they technically can, but it’d be foolish to do so. And though it would’ve been awesome for Hemsworth to show up as well, if one Chris has to go, it has to be him. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.

There’s still time for all parties involved to work out some kind of deal that pleases everyone and with any luck, Star Trek 4 will be blasting into theaters with both Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth in tow.