Simon Pegg Says The Mishandling Of Beyond Killed Any Momentum For Star Trek 4

Don’t hold your breath for a fourth Star Trek movie from Paramount.

That’s the stark message from Simon Pegg, whose engineer Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott has grown into something of a fan-favorite among Trekkies. It’s a similar story behind the lens, too, given Pegg went on to co-write Beyond, the third entry documenting the space-faring adventures of Chris Pine’s James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto’s Spock.

Alas, it’s looking increasingly likely that Beyond will be the last Star Trek movie for a while, after Simon Pegg told GamesRadar+ that Paramount’s mishandling of the 2016 blockbuster essentially scuppered any momentum for a fourth film. That, and the very tragic death of Anton Yelchin (Chekov), who passed away in 2016.

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.

And so, Star Trek 4 fell onto the back-burner at Paramount. But that’s not to say that the studio is ready to throw the towel in altogether; late last year, Fargo creator Noah Hawley climbed aboard to write and direct.

Trekkies were understandably excited, but any sense of hope was short-lived, after it was reported that both parties – that is Paramount and Hawley – had reached something of a stalemate over whether to bring back to the original crew for Star Trek 4. Essentially, speculation is rife that Hawley wants to work from a clean slate, while Paramount is keen to bring back the likes of Pine, Quinto and Simon Pegg.

The jury’s still out on that one. But at least for the time being, Star Trek 4 remains on ice at Paramount, with Pegg keeping busy with other projects (see: Mission: Impossible 7 and the soon-to-be-released Lost Transmissions).