While nothing can stop the continued growth of Star Trek on television, the feature film arm of the long-running franchise is an entirely different proposition. At one point, there were up to four movies in various stages of development, before Paramount were forced to publicly deny they’d given up on big screen blockbusters altogether despite putting the entire quartet on ice.
Noah Hawley dropped his reboot in favor of Hulu’s Alien series with Ridley Scott, Wrath of Khan producer Robert Sallin’s pitch was only the seed of an idea, and Quentin Tarantino’s R-rated effort has been powered almost entirely by hyperbole and hot air without moving any further forward. By the process of elimination, then, that put the fourth installment in the Kelvin timeline back in the driving seat.
Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto want it to happen, although Simon Pegg remains unsure that it will, but the latest report is claiming that Star Trek 4 is now on the table again with a new director at the helm replacing S.J. Clarkson. Not only that, but William Shatner is also reportedly being eyed to fill the legacy role occupied by Leonard Nimoy in the first two movies.
The latest addition to the rumor mill goes on to claim that the story will still incorporate the time travel elements from the earliest draft with Chris Hemsworth returning as George Kirk, which means the studio would probably have to sign him to a new deal after they failed to come to terms previously and he walked away from the project.
Perhaps the biggest nugget of information, though, is that Star Trek 4 could be a streaming exclusive to drive up subscriber numbers for Paramount+, which is a very risky strategy. After all, the first three all cost at least $150 million to produce and didn’t pull in the numbers expected from blockbuster sci-fi epics, with Beyond the lowest-grossing of the trilogy, making it a seriously dicey investment for an upstart platform.
