The recent history of the Star Trek franchise on the big screen has been clouded with uncertainty, a far cry from the episodic output being overseen by Alex Kurtzman, which continues to roll out new shows on a regular basis, with plans already in place to drop a new series on Paramount+ every quarter.
Since Justin Lin’s Beyond hit theaters in the summer of 2016, the fourth installment in the Kelvin timeline has come close to happening a couple of times, while Noah Hawley’s planned reboot was abandoned just as pre-production was beginning to gather momentum, the studio decided not to move forward on a pitch by Wrath of Khan producer Robert Sallin and Quentin Tarantino’s R-rated effort has always felt more like a pipe dream than a reality.
However, WandaVision director Matt Shakman was announced to be helming a new blockbuster that’s already got a script in place from Lindsey Beer and Captain Marvel co-writer Geneva Robertson-Dworet, with Paramount hoping to kick off production next spring, so it would be safe to assume that this is the mysterious project announced a while back that was already locked into a June 2023 release date.
There was additional chatter that Shakman’s sci-fi epic would be the canonical Star Trek 4, with Chris Pine and the rest of the Enterprise crew returning. Not to put a dampener on the excitement, but Deadline’s senior reporter Justin Kroll has indicated that no deals have been signed just yet, as you can see below.
With a director, script, production start date and theatrical debut already announced, you’d have to imagine that the contractual details should be getting hammered out in the very near future. The Kelvin gang are all game for another adventure, so hopefully they put pen to paper and make their Star Trek returns official.