For the most part, A-list movie stars don’t tend to appear in the Star Trek franchise, with the numerous movie and TV projects usually focusing on lesser known actors that grow into their roles over a number of years. That being said, some big names have shown up here and there in pretty unexpected places.
Early in their careers, Dwayne Johnson and Tom Hardy appeared in the small screen Voyager and feature length Nemesis, respectively, while Eric Bana and Idris Elba played villains in the rebooted trilogy buried under heavy prosthetics. Star Trek has never needed to rely on star power to sell itself to longtime fans, but with the future of the franchise shrouded in doubt and uncertainty, we’ve heard that Paramount want to sign up one of the biggest names in the business for one of the numerous in-development projects.
According to our intel – which comes from the same sources that told us Captain Pike would be getting his own spinoff long before Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was announced – the studio are keen to recruit Will Smith to play a Starfleet captain. Although, at this time, it isn’t yet clear exactly what movie they’re eying him for.
After all, the canonical Star Trek 4 and Noah Hawley’s unrelated take on the material are both still rooted firmly in development hell, and Paramount could realistically end up making none or both of those sci-fi blockbusters. Still, with Robert Downey Jr. and Brie Larson both having found themselves linked to Star Trek recently as well, it would certainly appear that the studio are actively seeking an injection of star power to ensure that the next installment in the franchise can make it into production sooner rather than later.
