It’s been 15 years since J.J. Abrams rebooted Star Trek in the gutsiest way possible: by creating an alternate universe. With 2009’s Star Trek, the director found a way to circumvent an overprotective fandom and decades of careful character-building, rebooting the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise with a fresh perspective and some modern-day sexual appeal. It wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but Star Trek ‘09 brought a lot of new fans to the property. The film and its two sequels effectively kept interest in Trek alive, paving the way for a new group of canonical small screen adventures. Now, Star Trek is stronger than ever, with shows like Strange New Worlds pushing the franchise into the future.
Abrams’ cinematic universe, meanwhile, has struggled to move beyond its first trilogy. Nearly a decade has passed since Star Trek Beyond, but producers at the newly merged Skydance-Paramount aren’t giving up just yet. Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, the studio’s new co-chairs, expressed as much at a recent media gathering in Los Angeles. “Star Trek is a priority across the company,” Goldberg said, and work on new Trek films has already begun.
Apart from a new film that, as Deadline reports, will feature “brand new characters,” Skydance-Paramount is getting the ball rolling on the next chapter in Abrams’ “Kelvin Universe” saga. Chris Pine’s James Kirk, Zachary Quinto’s Spock, and the rest of the Enterprise crew are all expected to return. No director has been chosen yet, but Abrams will be back to produce, while Steve Yockey (Dead Boy Detectives) is writing the script.
Paramount’s renewed commitment to telling Star Trek stories on the big screen is encouraging, but fans have heard it all before. The studio has been trying to revive the Kelvin timeline for years; directors like Matt Shakman, Noah Hawley, and Simon Kinberg have been attached to the property at one point or another, while Paramount has tried everything from a time-travel team-up between Pine and Chris Hemsworth (who played Kirk’s father) to an “origin” movie set decades before Star Trek ‘09. The film featuring “brand new” characters could very well be that prequel, although it’s ultimately not clear what story Yockey has planned. If this is the lucky sequel that finally gets off the ground, we’ll find out soon enough.
