Fresh from landing an Emmy nomination for Best Director in the Limited or Anthology Series or Movie category thanks to his work on the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Disney Plus show WandaVision, Matt Shakman has signed on to helm a new Star Trek blockbuster, which is coming from J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot.
The project is one of two Trek films in active development, with the other being penned by Discovery scribe Kalinda Vasquez. However, Shakman’s is getting out of the gate first, after the announcement came attached with the additional news that it’s being fast-tracked into production and cameras are expected to start rolling next spring, with the screenplay hailing from Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet.
While it hasn’t been confirmed as of yet, there’s already talk making the rounds that Shakman’s Star Trek will act as the fourth installment of the Kelvin timeline. No deals are in place yet for the cast, but if the script is already written and shooting is penciled in to begin in a few short months, then you’d have to imagine Paramount have already settled on which slot in the timeline the sci-fi effort is set to occupy.
In the years since Justin Lin’s Star Trek Beyond hit theaters, the next outing for Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban and the rest of the gang has come close to happening on more than one occasion, while Noah Hawley and Quentin Tarantino have both flirted with concepts of their own. Now that Shakman is locked down to take the reins, though, we should be finding out sooner rather than later if the Kelvin crew is indeed reuniting to step back on board the Enterprise.