Eight years.
That’s how lengthy it’s been since we final received a brand new Star Trek film (with 2016’s Star Trek Past). A follow-up, Star Trek 4, has been a lot reported on throughout these eight years, nevertheless it stays nowhere close to being made, not to mention launched. It’s like we’ve been caught within the Guardian of Ceaselessly all this time, and the scenario raises one large query: What’s the holdup?
In the meantime, the information broke this week {that a} new Star Trek prequel movie is within the works from director Toby Haynes (Andor) and author Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter), however that it’s unrelated to Star Trek 4. So Paramount is gearing up for a unique Trek film once they can’t even get Trek 4 off the bottom? Hmmm…
Wanting on the 45-year historical past of Star Trek on the massive display screen, we see that the primary 4 William Shatner-led movies had been produced and launched over the course of seven years (from 1979 to 1986), whereas the whole run of six films from The Movement Image in 1979 to The Undiscovered Nation in 1991 occurred over a span of 12 years. All 4 Patrick Stewart/Subsequent Technology photos had been remodeled the course of eight years (from Generations in 1994 to Nemesis in 2002). And the Chris Pine reboot sequence would possibly’ve slowed issues down some after its 2009 debut, however nonetheless managed to do three films in seven years.
However that brings us again to Star Trek 4, the untitled and presumed capper to the Pine iteration of the franchise. The final time followers have gone this lengthy with out a new Star Trek film was… nicely, earlier than there was such a factor as Star Trek films. There’s even a complete Wikipedia web page devoted to simply the “growth of Star Trek 4.”
The primary tangible chatter about Star Trek 4 got here throughout Star Trek Past’s promotional push. Producer J.J. Abrams – who had relaunched the franchise because the director of the 2009 movie in addition to its follow-up, Into Darkness – revealed {that a} fourth movie was being deliberate that may see Pine’s Captain Kirk reunited with Chris Hemsworth’s George Kirk, enjoying off of Hemsworth’s small however pivotal function within the 2009 film because the famed Enterprise captain’s father, to not point out his subsequent Marvel fame. (Years later we’d study that the premise of the Pine/Hemsworth story was “Indiana Jones and the Final Campaign in house.”)
Was that tease simply pre-release hype by Abrams supposed to get of us excited for Past? It’s inconceivable to say, in fact. However contemplating that Past made a couple of hundred million {dollars} much less than its predecessor, Into Darkness, on the worldwide field workplace, and didn’t even break $200 million domestically, it’s no shock that not a lot was heard concerning the proposed fourth movie for a while after that. Nonetheless, by 2018 there have been reportedly three completely different scripts in growth for a possible Star Trek 4, and one in every of them was coming from none apart from Quentin Tarantino.
Ultimately we’d study that Tarantino was a bit unclear on the distinction between the Abrams movies and The Unique Collection from the Nineteen Sixties, particularly the truth that they exist in several timelines. (“I don’t purchase that,” he mentioned on the Completely happy Unhappy Confused podcast in 2019. “I don’t prefer it. I don’t respect it. I don’t… fuck that! Alright? I don’t like that.”) The Revenant’s Mark L. Smith was employed to put in writing the movie and Tarantino thought of directing it, however finally he opted out and the undertaking appeared to lose steam at Paramount. We will solely hope that it a minimum of received made in an alternate timeline.
In April of 2018, S.J. Clarkson was employed to direct Star Trek 4. As the primary feminine director of a Trek function movie, this was a notable milestone. Alas, her tackle the USS Enterprise was to not be both. By August of that yr, experiences indicated that talks between the studio and Pine and Hemsworth had damaged down (basically, Paramount didn’t wish to pay Marvel or DC bucks for the under-performing Star Trek). In January 2019, Trek 4 was reported to be cancelled and Clarkson moved on to direct the pilot for one in every of HBO’s Recreation of Thrones prequels. (That pilot, which starred Naomi Watts, was reportedly shot, however the sequence by no means received the greenlight. Don’t fear although: Clarkson is lastly making her function directorial debut with Madame Internet subsequent month.)
Like Spock on Planet Genesis, Star Trek 4’s growth returned from the grave quickly sufficient although. Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) signed on to put in writing and direct the movie in late 2019, and intriguingly, his pitch didn’t embrace Kirk or Picard. Nevertheless it didn’t matter as a result of by 2021 Hawley was additionally off the undertaking and Matt Shakman, sizzling off of Wandavision, was on. And… by 2022 Shakman was out, off to direct Incredible 4 for Marvel.
Certainly, a lot of Star Trek 4’s woes sort of come all the way down to Marvel, or a minimum of the Hollywood that has developed over the previous 16 years for the reason that first MCU film was launched. Simon Pegg kinda nailed it when speaking to GamesRadar+ and Complete Movie a few years again:
“The actual fact is, Star Trek films do not make Marvel cash,” mentioned Pegg, who stars as Scotty within the Abrams reboot sequence (and co-wrote Past). “They make possibly $500 [million] on the most, and to make one now, on the dimensions they’ve set themselves, is $200 [million]. It’s important to make thrice that to make a revenue.”
It’s true that Star Trek films historically don’t play nicely internationally. Anecdotally, taking a look at Star Trek Into Darkness and Thor: The Darkish World, each of which had been launched in 2013, we see that they every made within the low $200 million vary domestically, however internationally Thor did about $200 million extra than Star Trek. And The Darkish World isn’t precisely thought of one in every of Marvel’s crowning achievements…
It’s been mentioned earlier than however one other a part of the equation may simply be that Star Trek’s true house is on the small display screen, the place all of it started. Say what you’ll concerning the varied Trek sequence that Paramount+ has put out over the previous six years since Star Trek: Discovery debuted, however the kind of tales and codecs that we’ve skilled on Disco, Picard, Unusual New Worlds, Decrease Decks, and Prodigy has definitely been extensive and diverse. (Michelle Yeoh can even be starring within the first made-for-TV Star Trek function, Part 31.) A function movie designed to hit 4 quadrants and ship motion and spectacle doesn’t at all times go that nicely with, say, a philosophical debate on the rights of a pre-warp species, ala Captain Picard. And a profitable TV sequence doesn’t want to be remodeled right into a profitable film sequence, or vice versa. (This can be a lesson that Marvel themselves are studying the exhausting manner proper now.)
And by the way in which, it’s not like Star Trek as a franchise is in dire straits proper now. The franchise had an important yr in 2023 with the breakout success of Picard Season 3 and Unusual New Worlds Season 2. The franchise could also be dealing with some contraction on the small display screen, however that’s largely on account of an industry-wide response to the glut of the streaming panorama. However the query should be requested: Why don’t the fits at Paramount company get their film and TV Treks higher aligned? Patrick Stewart has mentioned a script is being written to carry again Picard in another film, and the animated prospects of the franchise are ripe for continued mining. Many followers have been ready for an Avengers-style crossover between the completely different TV exhibits; certainly some sort of hybrid theatrical/streaming launch would make good sense from a [fights back vomiting] synergistic perspective.
There’s additionally the J.J. Abrams issue. As the top of Unhealthy Robotic Productions, the mega-filmmaker has had the keys to Star Trek’s big-screen fortunes ever since he directed the 2009 reboot. And as energetic as he’s as a producer, Abrams definitely appears to be taking his time today on deciding what his subsequent directing undertaking will probably be. Did the expertise of constructing 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – his most up-to-date directorial outing – have an effect on him not directly? Certain, the film made a bunch of cash, nevertheless it’s protected to say that the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy was, at finest, a wash in the long run. Maybe Abrams has grown phaser-shy today, and that has additionally impacted the event means of Trek 4 at Unhealthy Robotic.
So no matter occurred to Star Trek 4? Hollywood occurred to Star Trek 4. They didn’t cease making William Shatner films as a result of William Shatner was carried out. They stopped as a result of the studio thought they may get extra bang for his or her buck out of the youthful Subsequent Technology solid. And when the time got here, they didn’t cease making Patrick Stewart films as a result of Patrick Stewart was carried out. If his final movie, Nemesis, was a success, you will be positive the studio would’ve trotted out Picard and the Enterprise-E another time.
Perhaps the Chris Pine movies have simply run their course and it’s taken Paramount eight years to determine that out. If that’s the case, this newly introduced prequel – which is alleged to happen many years earlier than Kirk’s time – might be simply what the franchise wants: a contemporary begin. However maybe the studio additionally wants to think about what a Star Trek film launch even appears to be like like today – theatrical, streaming-only, hybrid, or in any other case. Spock was large into “infinite variety in infinite mixtures.” Paramount may stand to take a cue from the outdated Vulcan.
Discuss to Government Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottCollura, or take heed to his Star Trek podcast, Transporter Room 3. Or do each!
