Ever since Star Trek: Beyond hit theaters in 2016, the series hasn't been seen on the big screen – which is a shame, but has been somewhat remedied by the sudden volley of Trek shows on streaming services, like Discovery and Picard.
Now, a new Star Trek movie is finally moving ahead, according to a new report, with WandaVision director Matt Shakman behind the camera.
Previous efforts to make a new Star Trek film have stalled. At least three different versions of a follow-up to Beyond have existed, and not all of them were sequels. Quentin Tarantino famously pitched a take on Star Trek that never really seemed like it would materialize into an actual film – and indeed it hasn't so far, with the director saying in 2020 that he decided not to move ahead with it, though a script was written by The Revenant's Mark L. Smith.
A direct sequel to Beyond was once down to be directed by SJ Clarkson (Jessica Jones), and was written by JD Payne and Patrick McKay. That was due to bring Chris Hemsworth back into the movies – he'd previously played Kirk's dad in the memorable opening to 2009's Star Trek movie, but that version never ended up happening.
Now, five whole years after Beyond, this one sounds like it'll really get made. Shooting starts on Shakman's movie in 'Spring' 2022, according to Deadline, so some time in the second quarter of next year. The movie is written by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet.
It's unclear if the movie will star the cast of the previous trilogy. Back in December, the rebooted movies' Captain Kirk, Chris Pine, told Comic Book that he was unclear on the series' future – but sounded positive about returning to his most famous role. "But I love the character, I love the universe, I love my friends in it, you know, to have a Quentin take on it would be tremendously interesting and entertaining. You know, look, whatever happens, if I come back or not, it's a great universe, it deserves to have a future, and I hope that is the case."
We'll let you know when we know more about this new movie.
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Does Star Trek need to return to the big screen?
At its '90s height, Star Trek was releasing movies and TV shows concurrently – a testament to just how popular the franchise was. Then, by the early '00s, the demise of Star Trek: Enterprise and the box office failure of Star Trek: Nemesis put the series on ice for a few years.
Now, Star Trek has three shows running on the streaming service Paramount Plus – with a fourth, Strange New Worlds, set to join it. Featuring movie-quality effects, it's harder to delineate the shows and the films than it used to be. A Star Trek movie, then, needs to show us something we can't get on TV.
Shakman seems like a great fit. The visual imagination of WandaVision made it unlike anything else we've seen on the small screen, as it transitioned between replicating the style of different classic sitcoms – according to Deadline, this was just one of the projects he was offered after WandaVision. Clearly, he must be excited by what he saw on the page.
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