The rumors heralding the demise of the cinematic Star Trek franchise may have been premature based on a recent statement by Paramount, but that doesn’t mean we’re even the slightest bit closer to seeing any of the multiple projects currently in various stages of development. In fact, out of the four movies that have been discussed recently, you’d be hard-pressed to guess which one is most likely to make it to the big screen first.
The fourth installment in the Kelvin timeline regained and lost Chris Hemsworth, saw leading man Chris Pine initially walk away before changing his mind and parted ways with director S.J. Clarkson, while Simon Pegg sounded very pessimistic about the rebooted Enterprise crew’s chances of coming back for another adventure.
Noah Hawley was writing a script that would mark another clean slate before that too was put on ice, and veteran Wrath of Khan producer Robert Sallin has also thrown his hat into the ring with a pitch of his own. The most interesting, and therefore the least viable option, though, is the R-rated effort set to be written by Quentin Tarantino that’s said to be a 1930s gangster movie which takes place in outer space.
Tarantino may have flirted with the idea of directing as well, but it never seemed like there was much chance of it actually happening. Now that Paramount have confirmed that all of their cinematic Star Trek output is still in active development, however, that would infer that the Reservoir Dogs filmmaker’s unique spin on the mythology at least remains on the table.
Of course, at this stage, there’s no point in even trying to guess what the future holds for Star Trek in regards to the big screen, but we at least know the studio hasn’t given up on the long-running franchise quite yet.
