Star Trek 4 is still happening. That’s what Deadline says, and that’s what I choose to believe. But that isn’t the only Star Trek film currently making its less-than-warp-speed way to theaters.
Paramount has hired Toby Haynes (Andor) to direct a script by Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter). And while details are scarce, Deadline’s sources say “the project is an origin story that takes place decades before the 2009 Star Trek film.”
The last Star Trek film was Justin Lin’s Star Trek Beyond ins 2016, and everyone has their own, generally quite strong, opinion about that one. (“I like the beats and shouting.”) It is well past time for us to return to their version of space, and Haynes is an interesting choice of director. Along with most of Andor, he’s directed episodes of Doctor Who, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and Black Mirror (notably, U.S.S. Callister).
And this film seems to be set in an unexplored bit of the Trek timeline. “Decades before” the film that introduced Chris Pine as Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock could mean Trek Teens, but I prefer to believe this is something else entirely.
Once upon a time (in 2016), Paramount announced a version of Star Trek 4 that would have Pine’s Kirk meeting up with his father, who was briefly played by Chris Hemsworth (in the 2009 Star Trek). That movie seems to have been long since scrapped, but there’s always the possibility this is a different Papa Kirk film. Or not! The very few people who know are not forthcoming.
At any rate, Star Trek was (mostly) set in the 2250s, meaning this new film will be set sometime earlier in the 2200s. What this means for the competing Star Trek timelines—the Kelvin timeline of the recent films, the Prime timeline of most everything else—is anyone’s guess.
Neither of the new Trek movies has anything resembling a release date.
