Simon Pegg Says Losing Anton Yelchin Was A Huge Blow To Star Trek Franchise

It’s been almost four years now since Star Trek Beyond arrived in theaters, and in all that time, another cinematic entry in the sci-fi franchise has yet to go into production.

Suffice to say, the Star Trek film series is currently in a state of uncertainty, and according to franchise regular Simon Pegg, this recent slowing down can partly be attributed to the passing of Anton Yelchin back in 2016.

The Montgomery “Scotty” Scott actor recently spoke to GamesRadar+ and Total Film while promoting his new movie Lost Transmissions. When the subject of Star Trek came up, Pegg implied that the relatively modest box office of the film series, compared to the biggest comic book movies, means that Paramount has to be careful about pushing forward with a new project.

“The fact is, Star Trek movies don’t make Marvel money. They make maybe $500m at the most, and to make one now, on the scale they’ve set themselves, is $200m. You have to make three times that to make a profit.”

Pegg then went on to express some disappointment regarding 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, before reflecting on the loss of his co-star and the effect this had on the team’s morale.

“I don’t feel like the last one… They didn’t really take advantage of the 50th anniversary. The regimen at the time dropped the ball on the promo of the film. And we’ve lost momentum. I think losing Anton [Yelchin] was a huge blow to our little family, and our enthusiasm to do another one might have been affected by that. So I don’t know.”

Another major obstacle for Star Trek 4 was the departure of Chris Pine from the cast back in 2018. And while a report last year from Deadline implied that the James T. Kirk actor was back on board, director Noah Hawley has since dropped the occasional hint that his film might end up being another reboot that brings in a whole new cast.

All in all, the situation for Star Trek as a movie franchise is still looking very hazy, and that’s before you even consider Quentin Tarantino’s long-gestating project, which remains a saga of setbacks in its own right.