Summary

Star Trek’s successful reboot in 2009 brought in new fans and paid respect to the original series, but subsequent films struggled at the box office despite positive reviews. Paramount Pictures pursued Quentin Tarantino to develop a new Star Trek film, but negotiations fell through and the project was abandoned. Noah Hawley was hired to write and direct a new Star Trek film, but it was put on hold due to a major plot point involving a deadly virus, and the studio prioritized making Star Trek 4 instead. However, Star Trek 4 faced multiple setbacks and has now been deemed the final film in the franchise.

Star Trek is one of the most recognizable and profitable franchises in the world. Originating in 1966 as Star Trek: The Original Series, the franchise spawned multiple television spin-offs and a successful ten-installment film series. However, years of continuity made the franchise impenetrable for new viewers, and by 2005, with the conclusion of Star Trek: Enterprise and the disappointing box office return of Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002, the brand took a hiatus. Yet in 2009 the brand came roaring back with J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, a reboot that managed to bring in a whole host of new fans, while also making a film that paid respect to the originals.

A sequel came out four years later in Star Trek Into Darkness in 2013, and then in 2016, Star Trek Beyond was released to celebrate Star Trek’s 50th anniversary. However, by that point, the franchise had slowed down its momentum at the box office, with Star Trek Into Darkness not seeing an increase in opening weekend box office and Star Trek Beyond underperformed at the box office despite some of the best critical and fan reviews of the series. What impacted the franchise is unclear, but now it has been six years since the crew of the Enterprise led a feature film, and by the time the next film is reportedly set to open, it will be a seven-year gap, the same amount of time between the release of Star Trek: Nemesis and the reboot of Star Trek.

While Star Trek has remained a constant on television, with various Star Trek titles airing on Paramount+, one wonders why it has been so hard to make Star Trek 4. With a great cast, a recognizable brand, and a passionate fanbase, it seems like an incredibly easy venture. After all, the original Star Trek film series focused on Kirk and Spock and managed to get a movie out on a regular basis every two to three years. Yet the story of Star Trek 4 is one of a studio trying to recover from a string of box office disappointments and various different creative directions.

Update January 11, 2024: This article has been updated with more information about Star Trek 4, as the film missed its original release date and more bad news has befallen the film, while Paramount might have other plans for the franchise.

Original Star Trek Plans With S.J. Clarkson
Paramount

Shortly before the release of Star Trek Beyond, Paramount Pictures made their plans for Star Trek 4 known to investors. The pitch was to unite Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk with his father, George Kirk, who Chris Hemsworth played in the 2009 movie who, in the years since, had become a worldwide superstar thanks to his role as Thor in the MCU. In 2018, director S.J. Clarkson, who at the time was known for her work on British series like Life on Mars and EastEnders, signed on to helm the project. The original plan was to begin filming in 2019 and Black Panther and The Walking Dead star Danai Gurria was considered for a new role in the film.

The film was reportedly inspired by the Star Trek: Next Generation episode “Replicas” where Montgomery “Scotty” Scott is discovered to be alive inside a transporter buffer many years after his presumed death. The film would have seen the crew of the Enterprise exploring the wreckage of the USS Kelvin and discover that George Kirk had saved a copy of himself before the ship exploded (this could have been done in the moments of the first film of him realizing he cannot leave as he has to pilot the ship to fight of Nero’s ship to save the survivors) and is now able to interact with his son when they discover his consciousness in the buffer. They said the movie was inspired by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and they wanted the two Kirks not to get along. Jim Kirk finally met the father he had always heard of, but not being what he imagined, while George Kirk is a more by-the-books star-fleet officer who did not approve of his son’s recklessness.

However, shortly after Clarkson joined the project, negotiations broke down between the studio with Pine and Hemsworth over pay. Paramount Pictures and Skydance Pictures wanted to lower the budget for the film following the financial underperformance of Star Trek Beyond and wanted to decrease the actors’ salaries despite Pine signing a contract before the release of the third film he would receive an increase for returning to Star Trek 4. Hemsworth said he was unsatisfied with the script and in 2019 production on Star Trek 4 was canceled and S.J. Clarkson moved on to other projects. With it seeming like the studio would not pay Pine to return as Kirk, it appeared the studio wanted to invest in new leads for Star Trek and had two other projects in development.

Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek
CBS Studios

While Paramount Pictures was developing Star Trek 4 as a continuation of the main film franchise, they also were looking to develop other Star Trek films in a way similar to Disney and Lucasfilm’s approach with Star Wars. To make a big impression, they went after one of the most respected names in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino. Following comments Tarantino made about being both a fan of the original Star Trek and J.J. Abrams’s 2009 film and thinking there was potential to expand classic Trek stories into feature films, Paramount Pictures reached out to the acclaimed filmmaker to pitch his version of a Star Trek film.

The project was announced in 2018 alongside Star Trek 4, and shortly after, Tarantino and Abrams hired a writers room to help develop the film as Tarantino was busy working on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino’s pitch was based on the season 2 episode 17 of the original series ‘A Piece of the Action’ which took place on a planet similar to 1920s gangster movies. The film was set to be the first R-rated Star Trek project, and the filmmaker said it was like Pulp Fiction in space. While Tarantino liked the cast of the rebooted film series, he wanted the movie to be a prequel to the original series and not connected to the new timeline. Paramount Pictures saw the potential film as a way to reboot and relaunch the Star Trek property.

Related: Quentin Tarantino: Weird Unrealized Movies the Director Never Made (But Wanted To)

By December 2019, Tarantino said he would no longer direct the project. He did leave the possibility open for Paramount Pictures to still use the script they developed and would help give notes on the project. Tarantino’s reasoning is simple: the director is looking to retire after his tenth film, and Star Trek would have been his tenth movie. He clearly does not want his final movie to be an adaptation but instead an original film. It appears that Paramount Pictures has moved on from Tarantino’s Star Trek film as no news has been made on it as the studio has gone in a different direction.

Noah Hawley’s Star Trek
Paramount

In November 2019, months after S.J. Clarkson departed Star Trek 4 and just a month before Tarantino would move away from directing his Star Trek film, Paramount Pictures hired Noah Hawley to write and direct a new film in the franchise. Hawley had made a name for himself on television, creating the critically acclaimed series Legion and Fargo. While the film was originally pitched as a new incarnation of Star Trek 4 with the cast from Star Trek: Beyond returning just with a new story instead of the planned Hemsworth story, Hawley went in a new direction, wanting to focus on new characters. He did, however, want the story to have connections to the original series, similar to how his Fargo series connects to the Coen Brothers’ 1996 film.

Related: Star Trek Movies in Order: How to Watch Chronologically and by Release Date

Hawley worked on the project during the COVID-19 pandemic, but by August 2020, the film was put on hold when Paramount Pictures’ new president, Emma Watts, made figuring out the Star Trek property a top priority. One reason Hawley’s script might have been put on hold was a major plot point involving a deadly virus, which, given the COVID-19 pandemic, was not considered an ideal subject. Following the delay to Hawley’s Star Trek film, the studio reprioritized making a version of Star Trek 4. The studio dated the film for release on June 9, 2023, and began meeting with writers about pitches for a new entry in their popular franchise.

Matt Shakman and the Original Cast Were Set to Return
Paramount

In July 2021, Paramount Pictures officially announced that WandaVision director Matt Shakman would helm Star Trek 4. Then, in February 2022, Paramount Pictures announced the cast, including Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, would be returning. It was later revealed that the stars had no idea that the film announcement was coming and that they had not met with the studio, meaning Paramount Pictures was likely willing to pay the cast their original asking prices.

This is due to the studio prioritizing Star Trek as one of their major brands as well as market research showing that despite the large gap of time between Star Trek Beyond and the upcoming fourth film, audiences were more interested in seeing the cast return than an entirely new cast. The studio set Star Trek 4 for release on December 22, 2023, following the news that the Star Wars spin-off film Rogue Squadron was facing production delays and would not make that release date.

Despite it appearing the project was moving forward, the film continued to hit various snags as in August 2022, Shakman departed the project following the news he will helm Marvel Studios Fantastic 4. The studio never prioritized finding a director, and with no script or cast finalized in September 2022, Paramount removed the film from its release slate. The film failed to make its December 22, 2023, release date. In addition, screenwriter Lindsey Anderson Beer confirmed she was no longer working on the script for Star Trek 4 in October 2023. More bad news came rolling in as in November 2023, during the promotional tour for Wish, star Chris Pine seemed to indicate that he and none of the actors knew what was going on with Star Trek 4. News finally did come in 2024, but it might not have been what fans were expecting.

A New Prequel Film and the End of Kirk and Spock
Paramount Pictures

On January 10, 2024, Paramount Pictures was developing a new Star Trek film, but it would not be Star Trek 4 as many expected. Instead, The movie will be set decades before the 2009 film, making it a prequel. That would also technically mean it would be a prequel to the original series, as the first few seconds of the 2009 Star Trek film create a branching timeline, so everything that happens before also takes place in the prime timeline.

The movie is being developed by Bad Robot and will see Toby Haynes, a director best known for his work on sci-fi television series like Doctor Who and Andor, helming the project. The movie will be written by Seth Grahame-Smith, best known for his books Pride & Prejudice and Zombies, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (for which he also wrote the film’s screenplay) and The Lego Batman Movie.

With the announcement also came the news that Star Trek 4 was still in active development but added a new wrinkle: it would be the final film in the franchise. This means that whatever happens in Star Trek 4 will mark the end of this franchise for this incarnation of the Enterprise crew. This might be due to the actor’s busy schedules and high price tags, but it is certainly sad news for fans who were hoping to see these actors play these characters for many more years and hopefully get a six-story film saga to match their counterparts from Star Trek: The Original Series.

Even if the prequel film is the priority, the past eight years of Star Trek film development show nothing is set in stone. All we do know is that it has been eight years since the release of Star Trek Beyond, and it has been 15 years since the release of J. Abrams’s first Star Trek and the Kelvin timeline was launched. Hopefully, Star Trek 4 will finally catch a break, and audiences will get to see Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Bones, Sulu, Scotty, and the rest of the Enterprise crew in at least one more adventure.