Despite not really having the next film in the series properly locked down yet, more Star Trek films are planned.
The unexpected news to emerge out of Paramount’s big investor call in February was that a fourth Star Trek film in the Kelvin timeline is apparently on the way, a prospect which had seemed increasingly unlikely over the past few years.
Paramount announced that the film will be directed WandaVision‘s Matt Shakman, with JJ Abrams producing. However, as far as we know right now, casting negotiations are still ‘underway’, meaning that Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg and company aren’t yet locked into the project. Franchise lead Chris Pine met with the filmmakers back in April, though he only expressed what we’d describe as carefully-worded support, stating “conceptually, I love it. I love Star Trek. Again, I love the messaging of it. I love the character. I love my friends with whom I get to play. It’s a great gig.”
Whilst nothing in Pine’s statement suggests direct support for this planned sequel or the story it aims to tell, Paramount Pictures President Brian Robbins seems adamant that the film is happening with Pine and his fellow cast members, telling Variety “we’re deep into it with J.J. Abrams, and it feels like we’re getting close to the starting line and excited about where we’re going creatively. I’m a research nerd, and what the data tells me is that the audience wants that cast in this movie.”
It’s not surprising then, that that confidence extends to plans to make more Star Trek films. “Going forward, I’m focused on our franchises,” added Robbins. “We are fortunate in that we have amazing franchises, which we need to lean into. We have adult franchises like Mission: Impossible, A Quiet Place, Transformers and Star Trek. And we have family franchises with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and SpongeBob. You’ve got to have multi-year plans for these franchises. You can’t just make a movie, see how it does, and then decide to make another one, because if you do that, it will be years between sequels.”
So it seems like after a rather dormant period for Star Trek on the big screen, we may be in for a surge of movies. We’re fascinated by the slightly unconventional way in which this blockbuster is slowly taking shape and we’ll bring you more news on Star Trek 4 as we hear it.
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