Today the previously announced Star Trek feature film set to be released in the Holiday season of 2023 took a big step forward. [NOTE: The Article has been updated to include additional details]
Star Trek 2023 taking shape
It may finally be happening. Today during an investor day event for ViacomCBS (now being renamed Paramount), producer J.J. Abrams announced plans to start production on the next Star Trek feature film by the end of the year. According to Deadline, the planned film will bring back the crew of the previous three Star Trek movies, with talks underway with Chris Pine to reprise the role of James T. Kirk. Deadline also reports the plan is to bring back Zachary Quinto as Spock, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy, John Cho as Sulu and Simon Pegg as Scotty.
So far there are no details available regarding the plotline, beyond the inclusion of the Kelvin cast. Last month Simon Pegg talked about how the cast has been eager to reunite again:
We would all love to get back to it again, albeit with some sadness because of losing Anton (Yelchin). I always wish I could give you something more definite, but we just don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see.
Chris Pine as James T. Kirk in Star Trek Beyond
UPDATE 2: Official announcement
The new Star Trek feature film was listed among the many new projects announced during the investor day event in an official press release from Paramount. The release listed a number of projects under the description “New blockbuster franchise expansions also unveiled today include:” with the following for the 2023 film:
STAR TREK – the next theatrical film, with Matt Shakman directing and J.J. Abrams producing, will feature the original cast and new characters.
This bullet point on Star Trek is a bit more definitive about the inclusion of the Kelvin cast, with no caveats. So even assuming talks are underway with the cast as indicated by the Hollywood trades, Paramount appears confident enough to make this announcement to the investor community and to the media.
UPDATE: Abrams promises something “never seen before”
According to Variety, Paramount did market research to gauge interest to help decide how to move forward, including if they should bring back the Kelvin crew. Eventually executives “determined that there was still lasting audience enthusiasm for Pine, Quinto and the rest of the cast in their established roles, which allowed the studio to feel comfortable with moving forward with bringing them back.”
Variety also reports on Abrams comments during the investor event:
We are thrilled to say that we are hard at work on a new ‘Star Trek’ film that will be shooting by the end of the year that will be featuring our original cast and some new characters that I think are going to be really fun and exciting and help take ‘Star Trek’ into areas that you’ve just never seen before. We’re thrilled about this film, we have a bunch of other stories that we’re talking about that we think will be really exciting, so can’t wait for you to see what we’re cooking up. But until then, live long and prosper.
New script with new writers
Last year Abrams hired WandaVision’s Matt Shakman to helm the film. It was also reported last year that a script had been written by Lindsey Beer (Sierra Burgess Is a Loser) and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel). But according to today’s Variety, the current script was written by Josh Friedman (Avatar 2) and Cameron Squires (WandaVision), based on the earlier draft by Beer and Robertson-Dworet.
Holiday 2023
The last news out of Paramount regarding the movie was when the studio moved the release date from the summer to December 22, 2023. Starting production by the end of 2022 would still allow for Paramount to meet that release date.
There have been many stops and starts with Star Trek feature films at Paramount with a number of different projects in development since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. However, this is the first time Paramount has put a Star Trek film on their release calendar since Beyond, and bringing Abrams into the investor day event also indicated this project has momentum.
We will keep track of this project and provide updates when possible.
Find more news and analysis on upcoming Star Trek feature films.
Gawd, with all the time that has gone by, please let it be an intelligent engaging story (for once)!
Beyond was fantastic.
I liked Beyond well enough, but it was the umpteenth “angry villain out for revenge against Our Heroes ™ just because” movie in the franchise. I hope they find a different kind of story this time.
As stated in the article, the writer gave the world CAPTAIN MARVEL, so I’m not too hopeful. Of course, the alt-verse Trek movies always felt like it was based on a comic book franchise instead of a 1960s TV space opera, so maybe that’s appropriate.
I didn’t have a problem with the Captain Marvel story. I think its main fault was the excessively wooden performance of Brie Larson.
You guys always blame women. It’s pathetic. Grow up.
That doesn’t mean Thorny is wrong about her performance.
doesn’t mean that makes A34’s comments any less incorrect. There is an awful lot of misogyny on this forum towards actresses.
Sad, but true.
Whoops. Didn’t mean to ruffle so many feathers.
Memo to self: never give an honest opinion about a Hollywood actress. You’ll be labeled pathetic and misogynyst if you do.
Using the term ‘actress’ is very backward and politically incorrect. Please use female ‘actor’ going forward, please.
Oh please! Being a woman doesn’t make her immune from criticism. Especially since it’s true.
She was fine but they should have held off on Captain Marvel until after Avengers Endgame (and the character deserved a better script).
One of the writers gave the world Captain Marvel. This script is being written by a team.
And TOS was based on tv cowboy shows.
I liked Captain Marvel but, like JJ Trek, it was popcorn fun, not a story that really engages you in a meaningful way. But I suppose that’s true of most superhero films these days.
I came here to say this exact same thing. I hope someone’s listening.
EXACTLY. The character work was great, and the cast is largely to thank for that. We don’t need a big bad.. a fresh approach, please.
Clearly, mileage will vary.
Watchable, sort of, for me. The motorcycle was utterly ridiculous and deserved the derision it received, in keeping with the dune buggy idiocy of Nemesis.
Since I couldn’t get my spouse or teen kids to watch anything KU after the first one, I can’t see this being anything more than I’ll eventually catch y myself on our home television.
Seriously, if I have no hope of persuading the rest of a household of Trekkies to bother to come out, what kind of profit margin does this hope to have?
I was watching Wonder Woman the other night and saw Chris Pine racing along on a motorbike for a short sequence…is it something in his contracts?
It sounds like he has the same clause that Tom Cruise has in all his movies and there has to be motorbike scene somewhere!
Yeah, enough with Kirk on motorcycles already!
Disagree. Some of the character work was nice and the space station was spectacular. The villain was an undeveloped mess that was a complete waste of Idris Elba. Blowing up the Enterprise for the third time in the movies was lame. Kirk on a dirt bike was eye-rolling.
The use of “Sabotage” made me cringe. Like Star Trek is just about the joy of destruction now? About as far from the original philosophy as you can get.
Spectacular but ludicrously large.
I dunno, was it THAT much larger than the mushroom starbase? I m,ean both stations had starships flying around inside of them. And the Franklin was supposed to be much smaller than the Enterprise and it barely fit.
I enjoyed Beyond but didn’t love it. I get what you mean about the dirt bike scene- that small ship just happened to have a motorbike onboard? Just because somebody thinks something *might* look cool doesn’t mean it should go in a movie!
I kinda agree with that assessment. However while I was not a huge fan of Kirk on the motorcycle, I didn’t outright hate it like some others. It was a throwback to the first film where he was riding one. My main issue was that the bike on the old ship was a little too convenient for the plot.
Yes, I agree that Kirk on a dirt bike was not a big deal and in the right context might even be fun.
But wasn’t it cool that they incorporated a ‘Beastie Boys’ tune into two out of three JJ-verse films?!
If you are a Trekkie and a Beastie Boys fan it probably was cool. I’m not a Beastie Boys fan.
The space station was great but, Like the Enterprise, it felt way too advanced for the 23rd century. But I suppose you can chalk that up to reverse engineering the jellyfish or Nero’s ship or the scans taken from the Kelvin or whatever.
I love the Yorktown station. To me it really defines the vast resources, technology and diversity the Federation is suppose to represent in the 23rd and 24th centuries. But yeah, it felt ridiculously huge.
And why are humans bothering with little colonies all around Federation space with a few thousand people when you can just build stations like that which looked like it held millions.
Yeah, The Yorktown station truly felt like to belonged in, oh, I dunno, the 32nd century? LOL. It was def cool to be sure! HINT HINT DISCO.
But your point is made, if you can build vast stations like this with this kind of tech, then why bother with tiny little colonies like the one where Kirk suffered that tragedy in the Prime verse?
Agreed. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Okay, when was the last time we had an engaging, intelligent Trek movie (excluding the Kelvin movies)? First Contact? Voyage Home? TMP?
Voyage Home and TMP were the only ones.
No.
It is strange that you mention TMP(The Motion Picture, I presume) as being one of the more intelligent films. TMP was not well received by fans when it was first released. In fact, a lot of the same arguments being directed against the Kelvin films were used back then such as not following what new fans call “cannon”. It just(in my opinion) shows that the audience for Star Trek is so diversified that you will never please everyone, so maybe Paramount has the right idea(if news articles are to be believed) to create a multi-universe in order to please everyone?
Well I didn’t say is was an enjoyable film or even great Star Trek. However, it’s hard-scifi, and in fact I think is the only hard scifi Trek film. So it’s got some more intelligence than probably any other Trek films going for it, despites its other faults.
IMHO TMP, good or bad, is the most “Star Trek” film ever made. And not just because it’s the only one actually made by Roddenberry. That movie was really more about investigation and not just blowing stuff up. And that movie had no bad guy. Off topic, but that’s the issue I always have with Batman movies, too much “rich ninja” and not enough “worlds greatest detective”
I may not be a Kelvin fan, but creating the new universe was without a doubt the right way to go because JJ and co were never going to stick to canon and this was the perfect way out. And now that we have Star Trek Picard, we know IN CANON that the Prime universe was not erased by Nero and Spock.
I don’t see how TVH can be considered “intelligent”. It was amazingly low brow.
Well if we can agree that the sf concept of that movie was intelligent, but the execution was low brow, I’m with you…even though I really enjoyed the movie.
Not so sure we can agree on the sf concept. I found the entire premise completely absurd. Granted the film was meant as more light fare so less thought was probably put into that aspect of it. But I didn’t even find the “light” aspect of it fun.
It was highly humorous and yes it had a curse word here and there, but I don’t think that makes it low brow. The movie had heart with Spock finding his way back, with the crew fighting to save Earth when they feel totally helpless without the resources of the federation or the Enterprise, finding THE USS Enterprise, risking everything to save Chekov, etc.
The movie had an important story to tell about the fact that maybe killing off animals isn’t the best idea ever. “Captain Kirk, you and crew have saved this planet from it’s own short sightedness. And we are forever in your debt.”
Sorry, just my $0.02 but not at all low brow.
I know TWoK is the easy answer to give but I thought that movie was at least clever. I mean the idea that Marcus had Genesis 1.0 inside an asteroid and hid there from Khan and Kirk took that bet? The idea that Khan is the superior being but Kirk knew how to goad him? The fact that the ship fight scene was the only movie one that was actually like a naval submarine battle and not something out of a fighter jet scene like DS9 (which I love)? The movie def was def not just pew pew bang bang fun.
For me that was Star Trek 2009 and before that was First Contact.
The Undiscovered Country?
Definitely intelligent. I’m with you on Star Trek VI.
I love Star Trek VI and I do think it was intelligent. But Kim Catrall kinda messed things up when she didn’t play Savvik. It was so painfully obvious she was the mole/traitor. I mean, come ON, it was never going to be one of the TOS crew. Even if she did play Savvik, I would have suspected her before anyone else. But at least that would have been a gut punch. With it being Valaris, I just didn’t care. With the exception of Nimoy’s amazing acting and seeing how hurt he was.
TMP was the the only one I would call “intelligent.” The best of the lot dealt very well with some issues but I wouldn’t call those issues “intelligent.”
‘Final Frontier’.
Just for the love of Kahless, just not another revenge story about wanting to take down the Federation. If they can just not do THAT, I will be almost happy about anything at this point, intelligent or not.
I know the Kelvin movies have gotten a lot of scorn because people see them as more action popcorn flicks, but I always felt they at least embodied the spirit of TOS. But it would be nice to have a solid well written script since frankly none of these films has had one IMO, but Beyond probably the better one.
Everyone seems to want a multiverse movie, so it’ll be a revenge story on roids. Darth Vader, the Imperial Japanese Navy, and Dracula will all be seeking their…. VENGENCE!!
I agree and disagree with you. I think 2009 Star Trek was a good movie. To me STID was a huge mistake. Abrams not being a Star Trek fan did not(in my opinion) realize the success of the original Khan movie and thought he could pass off a remake of the original by just changing a few lines and characters. Beyond(while perhaps not the best written) was the turning point where the crew(main characters) began to show the transition of reckless youth into adulthood which was good. My main problem with Beyond was the convenient motorcycle. Why was it on board when in a subsequent scene Scotty makes the comment to Kirk that ships commissioned in the Franklin era were built in space and were designed to be launched from space and not from the ground. Was it(the motorcycle) going to be ridden around the ship or beamed down to a planet every time someone wanted to take it for a spin? Not exactly realistic.
To be fair, it’s a feature film and is unlikely to be a “thought provoker.” It has to be fun to watch to garner paying customers. So that’s just something we will have to accept from a feature film. I’m just hoping that it will deal with good ideas or themes while entertaining us with an exciting story.
My fear is they may do something more in the line with Star Trek Discovery. I’d rather see another revenge flick than have them reproduce elements from that show.
Well, that explains Christopher Nolan.
I enjoyed 2009 and in hindsight really respect what they managed to pull off. How do you reboot a franchise with the original characters while keeping the legacy of everything that preceded it? They pulled it off.
Where Paramount dropped the ball was by allowing a four year gap between films and then greenlighting a story that failed to put an unexpected spin on Star Trek’s best known and most beloved villain. I always felt the twist should have been that Cumberbatch was actually Joachim and that Marcus would be revealed as Khan. Khan, with access to the data from Nero’s ship as a pawn of Starfleet and a new identity, would have learned of his fate in the other universe and played the long game until taking control of both Starfleet and Section 31. A missed oportunity.
That said, I really enjoyed Beyond and it was the first original, completely standalone film in the franchise in years.
So, yes, I agree, no more revenge stories! Very much looking forward to this one.
They did pull off 2009, but that was thanks to them being able to get Leonard Nimoy back. without that the movie would have failed, at least with Trek fans. Nimoy gave 2009 the HUGE bump with fans it needed.
I feel like Into Darkness completely jumped the shark with not only Khan but the whole Kirk death/Spock yell which wasn’t earned by 2 characters who had only been in one movie together. And yeah, Cumberbatch should have been Joachim but the audience would have had no clue who that is so they would never had gone along with that. Can’t agree about Marcus though. Marcus was a mistake from the start because by the time TNG ended and we got to the Kelvin movies the evil admiral syndrome was more than played out.
I enjoyed Beyond because first and foremost it truly honored the original cast (Nimoy especially) and secondly because Pine was finally acting like Shatner but not in a mockery way.
2009 and Beyond were just great.
I do not think 2009 was great. Respectfully, I don’t even think it was even good, or even decent.
(But I do recognize not everyone agrees.)
I think it would have been a much better movie if it didn’t have Star Trek in the title or Enterprise on the hull of the ship.
I have to agree. It was a lot of fun and for me one of the highlights was the interaction between Spock and McCoy.
I just want an action movie. I don’t want a Trek Snooze.
Beyond was entertaining fun but the last good story was FC…
Feel the same way unfortunately.
I agree. Star Trek has always struggled with the movies, no idea why. Shame really, lots of potential there if you ask me.
I’m actually quite tired of the movie side of things for Trek. If it was up to me it would remain buried.
I think it’s always struggled in movie format because Roddenberry conceived of an idea that was optimal for TV – by nature it was episodic, told simple stories and looked at moral issues through a lens of exploring the unknown. It only really made that leap to the big screen because of Star Wars and the studio wanting to cash-in on the coat tails of that. I’m hopeful that Strange New Worlds will return to the original formula that made Star Trek great and the movies are eventually put to rest.
I enjoyed the KU as much as the next guy but I consider the last good story to be Nemesis.
YES!!!!
I SECOND THAT YES! :D
Yes!
Me too!! LOVE all three movies!
VERY excited! Not sure if it’s ever possible to reach the levels excitement of and enthusiasm as Lorna Dunne but very excited! ; )
Wow have to admit this is super super surprising! I was convinced the Kelvin cast was done, but now that they aren’t, this is pretty amazing news. I’m just happy a movie looks like is really happening this time and they got Chris Pine back! Edit: They maybe got Chris Pine back reading the full story. ;)
Now something to really talk about for a change lol!
We’ll see. Pine doesn’t seem to be on board, yet.
Yeah that really surprised me lol. I remember saying this multiple times in the past but why go through the motions of announcing a movie until you get the main star onboard considering what happened the last time? It’s a big reason why I doubted a film was happening.
I have to assume there has been a lot of informal talks about it between Pine and the studio for awhile if they are this confident to announce something.
Again though, just seems to make more sense to get everyone onboard first before you announce anything with all the starts and stops this movie series has had, but Hollywood plays to a different beat at times. Hopefully it will just work out this time.
Well, we’ve been to this dog and pony show before. If Pine, or any of the cast, are giving “damned if I know” answers to Trek 14 questions in August, this is all JJ being a tease. Again.
No. It isn’t. I just confirmed with a friend of mine at Paramount, and this film is, in fact, a go.
So Pine has signed a done deal?
Yeah this is not exactly a done deal after reading the full article. But its at least nice we know they have a clear direction and I’m guessing a script now. That was probably the (second) biggest issue. Since that they actually have that, hopefully the cast stuff will fall into place.
And to be fair, every cast member has said MULTIPLE times now they want to do another one, so it may not be that difficult to get any of them back. Maybe Pine has had a change of heart as well and willing to negotiate for a lower fee. Or they are giving him a raise lol. I will never understand how Hollywood works at times.
But I was the guy super convinced up until 2018 another Kelvin film was happening and then I was super convinced one wasn’t after that. It took nearly four years just to get to this point since then! I’m just going to stay cautiously optimistic now that we finally got some real news for a change. But yes, anything can happen.
Cautiously optimistic is the correct turn of the phrase. This cast has moved on to bigger and better things, that negotiations with Pine are just beginning, and the rest of the cast knows their worth, where is the motivation to do a charity project with Paramount “for old times sake”? An announcement with no details is great, but that’s all this is, an announcement with no details.
I think they had a real blast on the first three KT films, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they got together for old times sake and mayyyybe a little less money than they might normally get nowadays …
I really hope to see a film with all of them in it! Say what you want about JJ, he hires excellent casting directors!
No disagreement, this cast seems to get along really well. Pine and Gal Gadot seem to have great chemistry as well, casting would do well to make that happen. Just don’t bury her under a mountain of makeup. They tried to generate some chemistry with Pine and Alice Eve – that was painful to watch, and failed miserably.
No one is taking a pay cut, though.
I dunno. I don’t think certain cast members like Pine would have an issue, but Star Trek has a bad habit of typecasting it’s cast members and if I were in the biz I’d be worried about that.
Whilst I’d normally be inclined to go along with your scepticism I personally wouldn’t read to much into the cast not giving anything away. I mean didn’t we have spoiler & spoiler still giving ‘damned if I know’ interviews about their participation in the latest Spider-Man movie like literally days before that was released? I don’t think it would be a huge shock for actors to play dumb and not breach any potential non disclosure agreement by prematurely revealing commercially sensitive information. Maybe I’m being naive here but I’m feeling optimistic about this announcement. Don’t get me wrong, maybe they’ll miss that release date but I still have a feeling that we’re going to start seeing some real movement on this in the not too distant future.
I think the Spider-Man example is a bit different though. I mean no one ever doubted Tom Holland wouldn’t be in it. It was just a matter of keeping the surprise with the others (and a really bad surprise at that since it got out an entire year before the film arrived they were in it).
Many people doubted another Kelvin movie was happening because why not just tell people they would be in it since they been the sole face of the movie series for over a decade now.
I actually believe Peg (this time) when he said he didn’t know because I think Paramount just wasn’t sure themselves. I think once they got the script and budget out the way then it made it more tangible. But my guess is they were probably just trying to figure it out this whole time.
You’re absolutely right the Spider-Man example is actually completely different but it does show that you can’t always take what comes out of an actors mouth at face value. To be fair I do also think that Pegg comes across as pretty honest but on the other hand he’s not necessarily revealing everything he’s privy to either.
Fair enough!
I am getting a gut feeling that even though there may not be a signed contract that Abrams wouldn’t make this announcement unless he felt the pieces were going to be in place. My guess is that talks with all of them have been positive enough to make the announcement. Things might still fall apart. You never know. But at the moment I feel this is the real deal.
That’s my guess too. It’s all still so weird but if they gone this far they must feel very very confident it’s just a formality to get the rest back. And they all said they wanted to do another one, including Pine, so that was never really a question. I think the majority was probably fine with whatever they were offered.
The Pine situation was only different because they tried to low ball the guy after promising him a previous figure and I never blamed Pine for walking away. I would’ve personally taken whatever it was though lol.
He will be. That’s simply how negotiations work in this business, and they wouldn’t have announced the film if they didn’t know he’d be involved.
They can always get Shatner
They can do an adaptation of The Deadly Years.
That would be sad tho without Kelley, Nimoy, and Doohan.
Yes please. One last hurrah.
I thought the reason one of those earlier attempts failed was that Chris Pine was too expensive. Getting Shatner instead wouldn’t solve that problem since you can be sure he wouldn’t be cheap.
I’d bet good money he’d be cheaper than Pine. Shatner may be a living legend but he isn’t an A list actor.
Or alive.
No.
Where are you seeing that? Both the Hollywood Reporter and Variety report that Pine is coming back with the rest of the main cast (sadly minus Anton Yeltsin).
The link to the Deadline article was very specific. They just started negotiations, he’s not on board. The update is suggesting that they’ll be in principle photography by years end, and Abrams indicates there are other stories they are looking at. If they are planning on making a movie, come hell or high water, and don’t have plan A in place with the Kelvin crew, Abrams comments suggest there’s a plan B.
Stay tuned….
Which is still just mind boggling of the highest level! Why are you NOW negotiating with someone you had such a problem getting on board before that film got cancelled? But that was also an issue of not getting Hemsworth too I guess.
The ONLY thing I can think of is what I been saying for months now and they simply weren’t sure which direction they were going to take the next film in. The Kelvin cast was probably always on top of the heap but not a sure thing either. It probably just came down to the script and once they all felt more confident about that then it became a reality.
Because why not negotiate with them months ago when you already made clear a movie was definitely happening and you already set a premiere date for it? I think they really weren’t positive if they would go with the Kelvin cast until much later.
But I also have to believe they been talking to Pine for awhile now to make this kind of announcement. It would be crazy if it blew up in their face again, especially now that they made it so public.
I don’t think that you are reading that Abrams quote correctly, He is saying that the original crew is coming back for the movie that they just announced, and that there are additional movie ideas that they have beyond the announced film.
See, that’s my one surprise. Trek does not pull in MCU or even DCEU money so I don’t know how they are going to afford Pine or Saldana now.
Yes. I thought the Kelvin cast was done as well. This news was a bit surprising to me.
Yeah I think to plenty lol. But there were definitely a few true believers here though that was more convinced they were still going to be in the next film. They definitely deserve credit for having faith of the heart!
I gotta admit I’m not surprised. They were never going to do a prime universe movie because Paramount+ crowds that too much (unless it were a Prodigy movie) and They were never going to go with another crew other than the Enterprise because it wouldn’t be an audience draw. Esp with the real Picard on TV they aren’t going with a Next Gen Kelvin reboot.
All possibly true. I’m just not convinced another Kelvin movie seven years after the last one bombed is really the answer either. I am happy to have them back, but I truthfully feel unless the film is just an ‘amazing’ film in every sense of the word, it’s still going to be an uphill battle to get anyone NOT a hardcore fan to truly care at this point. I hate saying this, and I’m considered the ‘optimistic’ on this site.
But I’m also a realist. The fact that Paramount had to do market research just to see if enough people even still cared about those characters anymore is kind of a sign they are not really that confident either. But the since the responses are positive towards these actors, that’s obviously good news.
Hopefully the budget is just to a more realistic goal and they are aiming for a film to make around $400 million. I think the days where they are hoping for $500+ million dollars B.O. are over; especially now that Star Trek is back on TV and in a huge way. These movies are also no longer filling the hole they were when they first appeared when it was nothing else for new Star Trek content and we were literally years in between. Now you have Picard, Janeway and Spock all back on the small screen again and you’re getting it weekly literally all year long and every year.
Oh BELIEVE ME I feel the same way. Any way you look at it, this is going to be an uphill battle. The proof alone is in the fact that Paramount had to do a poll to see if audiences are even interested in this, as you said. And I’m considered the no one on this site LOL.
But realistically, 1) Pine is going to want a lot, 2) Saldana is going to want a lot. 3) I don’t know about Pegg but he won’t be cheap. 4) And the most important thing of all, we still won’t fully be out of pandemic mode when this movie launches. And even in normal theater mode this movie would never perform like a MCU movie would. And under these conditions? Look how Black Widow did? Spiderman NWH was a miracle quite frankly.
I know I am being a pessimist in this post but At this point in time under these conditions, I don’t really know what Paramount is thinking.
But back to my original thought, the reason I believe Paramount does believe in this (even if I don’t) is because when ST 2009 came out it made sense. There was 40 years of star trek history they did not want to mess with and so they created their own universe to have their own playground. Now? There is 50+ years AND FIVE shows, possibly more by the time this is in theaters that are actively in the prime universe and messing with canon. The Kelvin universe is really their only option.
So that leaves 3 questions. Go with Kirk and co again? Reboot TNG? (can’t when Picard is active on Paramount+), or go with an entirely new crew? (could do that but what would be the draw for any audience? trek or otherwise?)
It’s no secret Paramount has been in shambles for years now and they don’t have the big movie IPs like Disney, Warner Brothers or Universal do. They have a lot of middle tier IPs like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, SpongeBob, Quiet Place movies (they make great money for their budgets but still smaller films end of the day) and yes Star Trek (but that’s more of an upper middle tier I guess). At the moment Mission Impossible and the Transformer films are the biggest films series they have. And Transformers is currently in a transitional phase itself. Bumblebee did OK, but it was nowhere close to the big Michael Bay movies everyone says they hate but still go watch (even I seen every one of them in the theaters).
So I understand why they wanted Star Trek to go bigger because they simply need more big brands to stay competitive. And the Kelvin films at least had the potential to be a big tentpole film series they wanted, but I don’t think they were ever going to be as big as they were hoping though. And Beyond certainly killed that dream. Killed it dead!
So yeah, I think we see the dilemma they are in. On one hand you can say its probably a mistake to keep using these characters after all of this time and they never went as big as they hoped. But they were still the biggest BO Star Trek has ever gotten. I can understand why it’s scary to just start over. But same time, these are some of the most expensive films Paramount has ever made as well and that was really the biggest issue. Most of us thought Beyond was going to be the ‘cheap’ film in the series and it still came in at nearly $200 million. It should’ve been under $150 million, period. And if it was and Beyond made the same money, another film probably would’ve been out long ago.
So its a rock and a hard place. Gamble on something new, but cheaper, there is no guarantee enough people will be interested. Stay with the familiar, there is at least history they can pull people in, but at what cost if they had to pay so much more just for the actors? Apparently they have a budget they can live with now, so we’ll see.
I’ve always said it, I like the Kelvin movies, despite alllll their problems lol. I don’t feel they are for ‘me’ per se but that’s fine, not everything HAS to be for me. I don’t mind they are loud action movies, as long as they are fun and stick with the spirit of TOS (which I know many question). I just want to see the franchise grow and if it brings in more fans to watch the other classic shows and films I do love and grew up with, GREAT!
I don’t know how you feel about these movies personally, but I’ll definitely watch and support the next one. I watched every Kelvin film twice in the theater. But fandom is so divisive these days, especially with these movies, I just don’t know if most fans still care? Looking at this site and others over this news, it’s questionable lol. And a big reason why Beyond failed. Fans just lost interest and that was already 6 years ago. And with all the new shows, even if fans say they hate those, it’s still easier to sit at home and watch something you claim to hate versus going to a theater for it.
But maybe after 7 years with no film at all, it may be enough for people who just miss watching a Trek film in a theater again. And there are obviously people whose first foray into Star Trek started with these movies, so these films will have been around long enough to feel ‘nostalgic’ by the time the next one comes around and maybe get some of them to go back; even if they never watched anything else.
Every bit helps. ;)
Fantastic news! I thought Beyond was one of the best movies in the franchise and cannot wait to see the next Kelvin adventure.
I actually liked Beyond more than Into Darkness.
I think a lot of people did lol. At least the hardcore fans.
I’m as hardcore as they come and I found them both to be dreadful. Beyond put me to sleep on only the second viewing.
Fair enough!
I have always said I liked both STID and Beyond BUT I had all the same issues with STID as others, I just still enjoyed it. Beyond I always liked more but yeah I have to admit it’s more on the boring side too. It’s probably the film I watched the least out of the three although I thought it was the best one, so figure that out. ;)
STID — good sf/adventure film, bad Star Trek film. I sort of agree with you.
Nah, it wasn’t even a good film. The story was borderline ridiculous and the mac guffins… transwarp beaming to Q’onos!?!
I liked ST09 and STB a lot, but STID is the worst Trek movie ever…
I may be in the minority around here (particularly as a dye-in-the-wool ST die-hard, especially the TOS and their 6 movies), but I disagree completely. ST ID is not only an extremely good film (the best of the 3), I consider it a Great one — both in terms of ST as a whole and movies in the broadest, most general sense. Personally, I rank it just behind tVH and tWOK on the ST movie scale and it actually makes my Top 20 of best (ie. favorite) movies of all time. It is true to the storytelling qualities and themes of ST while mounting them within the framework of “modern” popular movie-making style and sensibility. It is fast and funny, heartfelt and thoughtful — a marvel both visually and in its use of sound and Giacchino’s truly magnificent score. It is, alongside the pilots for Alias and LOST, Mr. Abrams’ best work as a filmmaker with — in this case — a remarkably effective grasp of mise-en-scene for a contemporary, large-scale film director. The film takes Kirk through a genuinely effective, and soulful, journey (it truly is the middle “road of trials/belly of the whale” of Campbell’s monomyth — which BEYOND doesn’t quite living up to fulfilling with the Hero’s Journey final movement of the “Return” ). Like I said, I know I represent — at least among longstanding ST fans; general audiences and a majority of professional critics saw the same ID I did — a relatively small group but, hey, here’s to Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.
(Also, Bad Robot, with 4 please bring back Alice Eve as Carol Marcus; she made a great and uniquely specific fit to the ensemble, the players of which are the Kelvin pictures’ most notable strength.)
I do have to say that the KU, especially in the first two films, did play really fast and loose with galactic geography as well as the effectiveness of the transporters. I wasn’t a fan of that at all. And I don’t think many of the Trek fans were as well. Even if they like ’09 overall.
I’m no fan of STID but it’s a bit of a stretch to say it was the worst ever when TVH, TFF & Insurrection are all out there. But to each his own.
I tend to agree with this assessment. I can watch SDID. It is a fun watch. But as a Trek film… It just doesn’t work for reasons that we have all discussed.
Agreed
Yeah that seems to be the general consensus wherever I go.
Most people did.
Not really. Box office was mediocre, which is why there has not been another movie since 2016.
Exactly
You are not alone!
Beyond was far better than Into Darkness. In my opinion Into Darkness was clearly the worst out of the three movies.
My read is that most Trek fans agree that STID was the worst of the three. The problem is it made the most money probably because it resonated better with NON-Trek fans. This has been a balancing act for Trek features IMHO. Pleasing fans but making the film more accessible to non fans. There has been moderate success at this but it has never been fully realized.
I can’t speak for non-trek fans (or trek fans for that matter really lol) but you might very well be right. But that is kinda the point. STID might have been an enjoyable SciFi film, but I can’t tell, because as a Trek fan I was looking at it through that lens and all I saw was a dreadful Trek movie.
I just didn’t like seeing the Enterprise destroyed for the third time in 13 movies. At least now we can move on from that deus ex machina I hope. And no more whining from Pine’s Kirk about how much he hates being a starship captain.
How I dreaded seeing her destroyed in “Beyond” … yet what a love letter to a starship Justin Lin did. That great lady gave her all. It was … Kirk and his lady Enterprise, in the finest tradition of Trek.
The ship destruction scene was a really good scene. And seeing Kirk, the last to leave stare at his ship being torn apart was pretty emotional to me.
That said, you do have a point. We have seen the Enterprise destroyed too many times at this point.
I don’t like how the Enterprise doesn’t get to hold her own anymore.
Balance of Power – ship gets hit with plasma torpedoes, causalities, ship fights on for a whole hour!
Look at ST: TWOK – the ship had the whole engineering deck hit and the ship fought on.
ST: VI TUC – holes in the saucer section, the ship fights on.
Now it’s all TNG with the Enterprise lasting 10 seconds in combat.
In Beyond, couldn’t they have fired some proximity photorps at least before she goes down?!!?
Can we get some strategic/tactical starship combat back?
I loved it but I don’t know how much of that was down to having extremely low expectations after one of the worst trailers and marketing campaigns in living memory. I do hope they bring back Sofia Boutella’s character though.
The “marketing” for Beyond was a travesty. Outside of LA and NYC, that is. One crummy derivative trailer and two months of near silence. I’m still peeved about it.
Yea, and they failed to capitalize on Trek’s 50 year anniversary with that release as well. They pulled a “John Carter” marketing fiasco on Star Trek.
Added by the fact it was Trek’s 50th anniversary!
Well, since this hinges on signing the cast, this is hardly confirmed sadly. We all know what happened when they tried to do this the last time.
Yeah, but they were trying to get Chris Helmsworth too as Kirk’s dad via some sort of time travel story. Hopefully, they’ve scuttled that idea. Like someone said, after Beyond, it’s not really a necessary move for the character.
I dunno, but I wonder after Spiderman: No Way Home if there would be some way of getting Shatner in the new film via the Nexus. I know Mr. Abrams decided not to do that with Orci’s idea for a holographic letter to Spock from Kirk because it was too fanboy, but the Spiderman film showed that that can work with some great writing.
With Shatner’s Kirk, though, as much as I’d like to see him one more time, I think that train has passed by a long time ago. Thanks to Kirk’s death, it was largely closed and now, after all these years I’d say the door is shut, probably for the best.
Oh, well
That script has been dead in the water for years now or they wouldn’t had hired a new writer. None of the fans seemed in love with it. Besides the fact it sounded like yet ANOTHER time travel movie it’s not like Kirk’s dad ever had some big influence on Kirk in the franchise as a whole. They killed him off in the first ten minutes of the film for a reason. They only wanted to do it because Hemsworth himself became a big star, but even he said it wasn’t a great story and moved on.
As for Shatner’s Kirk, who knows, but I have a feeling Paramount just doesn’t want him in the franchise again after what happened with Orci’s script. But it’s supposedly a new set of people running things now, so anything is possible. They got Beltran back to play Chakotay so ANYTHING is possible lol.
Shat’s been up in space for real now, what does he need with a “Star Trek”?
Where is Bob nowadays?
He sometimes still pops in here in the comment section.
He comments from time to time, but it sounds like his Trek ship has sailed as well.
I think JJ’s idea all along has been to *loosely* follow the original films. First movie bring the characters together. Second movie battle Khan. Third movie destroy the Enterprise. Fourth movie time travel.
And this is exactly why people consider him unoriginal today if this is true, which I don’t think it really is. And the Enterprise being destroyed in Beyond was Justin Lin’s idea. It doesn’t sound like the previous story ideas had that until he came onboard.
I am very interested in seeing what is possible with Paramount and Star Trek not being split into two parts. Fingers crossed that maybe Abrams will take a bigger interest in making a good movie.
Well I’m sure they wouldn’t mind Shatner back, but he had made it clear he doesn’t want just a cameo part. He wants something meaningful. And normally I would point out the man is 90 but he just went to space so I will shut up about that lol
I think that’s the issue of course. And I understand it from Paramount’s POV. Yes, to us nerds, having Shatner in another movie will drive a lot of us to go, but in Paramount’s eyes, we’re most likely going anyway. It’s not going to movie the needle much for younger and newer fans to watch a 90 year old guy dressed in a starfleet uniform karate chopping Klingons half his age.
And of course Nimoy was part of the first two, but that was probably all they felt they needed to get any of the fanboys off the couch to watch it. By the third one, they probably figured it could just be about this cast and not rely on more nostalgia or stunt casting.
But yeah, I think having Shatner in the third film would’ve certainly gotten more interest from fans who gave up on these movies after STID or even after the first film; especially for the 50th anniversary. It’s amazing how short sighted Paramount thought about that anniversary and probably their biggest symbol for it. It cost them in more ways than one.
There are ways to get Shatner in this thing without using the Nexus. The Nexus poses far too many plot problems. All of which were highly showcased in Generations. I’m not pushing for a Shatner appearance myself but if it is done in a smart and “organic” way I can be on board with it. There are different things they could do. It could be “old” future Chris Pine. It could be another Kirk from yet another timeline (where where he didn’t die on Veridian III.) There really are plenty of options out there.
No, it’s confirmed, and the studio has the bank now to get them all signed.
The studio (and company as a whole) lacked the stability and focus it has now/ I think this one is going to happen.
Hah! What a surprise! I am not 100% Kelvin Fan, but I’m actually glad this crew is coming back for another shot.
I like the actors. Really hope there are no more changes or cancellations.
+1
YES!
Just get them to be in red WOK/movie red uniforms. Pine and co have certainly aged beyond the colourful TOS inspired uniforms. Timeline wise, in terms of the number of years that have passed, and the grey hair on Pine, it makes sense.
How to explain Anton’s absence? Chekov’s transferred to the Kelvin version of the Reliant of course
No no, put them in TMP Beige tunics :-)
LOL
No love for the skants?
I want the TWOK monster maroons in three or four colors… same design, but the departmental colors from TOS… plus white ones as modern Trek does for medical personel…
While I liked those outfits for the original crew, I hope they stay far away from them in the Kelvin universe.
Perhaps the time frame will be and probably should be after the 5 year mission. That would make a lot of sense.
So….JJ is going to squeeze this out in twelve months?
They are in talks with Chris Pine to reprise the role of JTK?
Avatar 3 is slotted into 12/2024. Granted, James Cameron has been jockeying that around for years, but if it holds, that’s another schedule conflict to resolve.
There are a whole lotta ifs to resolve before everyone breathlessly starts jawboning a Trek multiverse story.
I believe Avatar 2 and 3 have already been shot back to back.
Yep, they’re in the can.
Star Trek XIV: The Multiverse of Trekness
Right! This is actually funny. Everyone is now excited with the multiverse concept. For Star Trek Fans, we know about it for 50+ years. :P
Embrace the Multiverse!
Right?!?! The MCU didn’t do it first! Trek didn’t either but we were there a lot sooner!
I’m not holding my breath. How many fits and starts have we had since 2016?
According to Memory Alpha, at least five:
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek_XIV
I want to believe, though. I really do.
Yeah I can’t blame anyone for still feeling VERY skeptical about it. Until I read they haven’t signed the cast on yet, I was a lot more confident about it. But it’s been nearly 10 months of silence since announcing it. If they are finally saying who will at least be in the film then I have to assume they have informally talked to all of the cast and they are willing to do it.
More than 5. Going by what has been reported by this site, and assuming I have not missed any, this is the 10th reported script (and who knows how many unreported ones):
July 2016 – JD Payne/Patrick McKay/SJ Clarkson (Chris Hemsworth return)
June 2017 – Nicholas Meyer (Wrath of Khan director, “fun” project, new characters)
September 2017 – Quentin Tarantino/Mark L Smith
March 2018 – Simon Pegg/Doug Jung (Beyond writers)
March 2018 – Mystery unnamed script mentioned by Zachery Quinto
November 2019 – Noah Hawley (Fargo writer, deadly virus story)
March 2021 – Kalinda Vazquez (Discovery writer)
April 2021 – Matt Shakman/Geneva Robertson-Dwore (WandaVision and Captain Marvel writers)
October 2021 – Alex Kurtzman (animated)
February 2022 – Josh Friedman/Cameron Squires (Avatar 2 and WandaVision writers), based on draft by Lindsey Beer/Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel writer)
JJ Abrams is/was attached to produce a bunch of them.
I thought the Kurtzman animated movie was in addition to Star Trek 14, not Star Trek 14 itself. And aren’t the April 2021 and February 2022 movie the same one, just with minor writing changes?
That’s correct. I was listing all potential next movie projects that have been reported here, Star Trek 14 or not. We don’t actually know how far projects have gotten or if the reported rumours were even true.
For example, the Nicolas Meyer thing might be a tv series instead and the Pegg/Jung movie was denied and never mentioned again. The mystery script by ZQ has also never been mentioned again and he might have just made a mistake.
I listed the April 2021 and February 2022 scripts differently as the writers are different and there is a new article but did note it was based on a draft.
Exactly! It’s its own project. Several of those weren’t even Star Trek movies. Simon Pegg made it clear the screenplay he was working with Doug Jung was an original script and nothing Star Trek related. The one with Quinto was talking about was the Pegg/Jung script at the time he just assumed they were working on a Star Trek movie. Thats why they are both listed in literally the same month, he just saw it on the internet like everyone else and assumed it was Trek related. These should not be on that list AT ALL!
This is what gets annoying about the internet. People don’t take time to even do a few minutes of research sometimes before throwing things out there,
The Avatar 2 writer gets me excited. Not so thrilled about the Marvel writers though.
Not sure why unless you are familiar with his other work. No one has seen Avatar 2 yet.
Personally, I have no interest in any future Avatars after that train wreck of an original.
I love Avatar, but I will note that I have never run across anyone who said they kind of liked Avatar. People seem to either hate it or love it, not much in-between.
I think the internet will be full of doubters this year bashing Avatar and saying too much time has gone by, etc. etc. Then, like he always does, Cameron will prove them all wrong again, with the sequel doing $2B+.
The first film made a ton of money so there is a guaranteed audience going in. Meaning it will make money. Cameron has shown he is capable of making good movies. But he can also make garbage. Personally, after seeing the first one I have zero interest in any sequels.
This ‘list’ is not accurate though. TWO of those you listed had nothing to do with being Star Trek movies. I remember I corrected you on this another thread and you just listed them again. The Nicolas Meyer project was never a movie, it was a 3 part Khan mini-series (ugh) for CBS All Acess at the time. That was revealed over a year ago.
And why you are listing the April 2021 and February 2022 lists as different projects??? They both are the same projects, they just brought in another writer for a different draft of the original script. This happens with the majority of movies out there.
And the Prodigy movie sounds like its something that is years down the line. It’s not really ‘in development’ just something they are talking about doing in the future and very separate from the others.
It’s why conspiracy theories and rumors have a hard time dying online. ;)
And I remember correcting you that that Nicolas Meyer project was first reported as being either a movie or a tv series. I already mentioned the same thing in this thread.
The list is about what this site has reported, not about what is actually happening because we don’t know what is happening behind the scenes. I clearly state “Going by what has been reported by this site, and assuming I have not missed any, this is the 10th reported script”.
The point of the list is to poke fun at how many times this site has reported a new movie (Star Trek 14 or otherwise), only for us to find out a few months later that the writers or idea has changed. Don’t take it so seriously.
OK then, I apologize. It seem like it was serious take of every film in the last 5 years, but I get what you mean now! Sorry for coming off so strong.
Great. More lens flares, Beastie boys and mindless action.
The Beastie Boys song in Trek must have been very popular because it was used in a multitude of movies. Binged watched movies one weekend and it seemed liked that song was in two-thirds of what I watched.
I had COMPLETELY given up hope for a new Trek film with the Kelvin crew! Terrific news!!
I’m meh about this, but I like the cast. I really liked the nods to the prime Enterprise crew in Beyond. It felt that Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were just beginning to form the bond that we know them for. If Abrams would tone down the action and lens flare, focusing on the crew relationships and the Enterprise, I think he could make a damn good Star Trek movie.
It’s a feature film so there does need to be action sequences. One of the issues I had with STID was every time it felt like they were getting into something character building it would get interrupted with an action sequence. Almost like the writers didn’t know how to get out of such a scene. Beyond did a better job on that front although I would have liked to seem more of it.
Never really doubted this would be the 4th film featuring this cast.
I’m sure we’ll have endless arguments about how it’s not a done deal YET, and I’ll leave that to people who have the energy for that. Right now there is a lot of reason to be optimistic.
And I don’t care if it’s another villain who wants revenge story. I’m fine with that. Not one of my hang ups.
It’s been so long since we last saw this crew that I think it would be wrong not to have Chekov in the crew. I had an idea about this. In the TOS episode “Day of the Dove” Chekov mentions his nonexistent brother Piotr Chekov. Maybe in the Kelvin Universe Pavel transfers to Reliant earlier and Piotr (Tom Holland) takes his place?
They could say Chekov made Lieutenant and is in Command School at the Academy (what Saavik was doing in Star Trek II.)
If they don’t bring back Jaylah (who has had plenty of time to graduate the Academy now) how about bringing in Lt. Ilia?
Holland would be too expensive for a small part like that though.
I’m fine ignoring Chekov at this point. If it tightens up the story jettison Sulu, Uhura and Scotty as well.
Let’s not forget that Prime Chekov was born in 2245 and Kelvin Chekov was born in 2241 (the only Kelvin character who is actually not the altered Prime version). Kelvin Chekov could totally have a brother Piotr.😀
Yea, if we could grab a $100 bill for every time someone here whines about it “not being a done deal” in the next 6 months, we make quite a killing.
Conversely, if I had a hundred dollar bill for every time I was right about this not being a done deal, I’d be able to retire early to some tropical island, filled with naked women…
Touché! :-)
It’s the most optimistic I been in 5 years lol. First time they had a director, writer, cast, shooting date and premiere date all announced at the same time.
It just sounds like they haven’t made it 100% with the cast but I HAVE to imagine they have at least informally got them to all agree to be in it to even announce it. It can still go sideways but from what I can tell that’s all that is left now.
Finally, a chance for a more Tribble-centric outing
This is not exciting news. “Star Trek: Into Darkness” turned off a lot of the core fanbase, who didn’t turn out for “Star Trek: Beyond,” and “Star Trek: Beyond” failed to excite either the core fanbase or the broader audience, and grossed less than “Into Darkness” in the US and overseas.
I imagine they’re scaling the budget back dramatically — the three Kelvin movies cost $150M, $190M, and $185M according to Wikipedia — because the last film only made $343M worldwide. That means less of a “thrill ride” to draw in those general audiences, and it’s not at all clear to me that the JJ Abrams crew knows how to make a compelling Trek movie that’s not about action and explosions.
I guess I’m just all over the place with this. Beyond was the only one of those movies I liked, but as several people have pointed out, it was still kind of formulaic with the big bad villain. I wish they had the bandwidth and imagination to pull off a political thriller like TUC or an environmentalism-themed action comedy like TVH. Not just thinking they have to endlessly iterate TWOK and, to a lesser extent, FC, as much as I love both of those movies.
You must be fun at parties.
I assume they HAVE to cut the budget back. It’s no longer 2009 and the hype for these films died out long ago, hence Beyond, And it’s no guarantees this film will do any better than what Beyond did, which is probably why it’s taken so long to get another one off the ground. And seven years is a long time in our new world movie order.
I like these movies but I said they squandered their great potential long ago with both new and old fans. It can still do well obviously, but I hope its budget is much much lower this time,
Bleah. Oh, well. Maybe Star Trek XV will be something I’m more interested in.
Share the feeling.
You never know, it could be a lot of fun. But if you just hate the Kelvin universe, that’s different.
Personally I would’ve liked a brand new cast of characters but this was my second choice.
I’m definitely no fan of the Kelvin universe, it’s true, though I know those three movies have their fans, so I won’t waste pixels on the same litany of criticisms and complaints everyone here has been reading / hearing (and in some cases making) for over a decade now. I’ll just note that I’m among those who’s disappointed by this, but at the same time it’s not exactly a huge surprise or anything.
Moreover, as long as Lower Decks and Prodigy are both still going strong and stay as good as they’ve been, I really have all the fresh new Trek I really need, especially since this franchise is most at home on TV anyway and since I also never really tire of rewatching the older shows and movies. And hey, the Kelvin movies do actually seem to make new fans for the franchise, so that’s cool!
While I always liked the Kelvin movies, I have criticized them a lot in the past as well. For me, I’ve always said I just like the idea of putting Star Trek in another universe more than anything and doing something slightly different with it. The problem is they haven’t really done anything super creative with it outside of making everything look super shiny and turning Khan into a different nationality and where it’s really disappointed me.
And I actually would’ve preferred the next film with brand new characters as well. I would’ve been more than fine if they kept it in KU, just with new characters. But my guess is that universe only feels relevant with the TOS characters and any new characters would probably just be done in the prime universe. But I would love to see the KU expanded in time, but not holding my breath anymore with the Prime universe being back in a big way.
Thats oddly why so many like you like LDS and PRO so much, because they do feel fresh and different, but still brings in enough nostalgia and getting the canon elements of the Prime universe mostly right (take copious notes Discovery). They heeded the best of what most Star Trek fans want: different…but the same. ;D And they are just very well written IMO!
As far as the next movie, if they can just NOT do the uber-villain wants to take down the Federation and have the scripts just make more logical sense in general then I will be happy. It doesn’t take much for me lol. But three films in…
Hopefully Abrams means what he said and we’re going to see something ACTUALLY new for a change. This is the same guy credited with TFA and TROS though.
Well… as far as villains go, Star Trek (2009) was similar to ST:TMP (work with me for a moment please) with the Giant Space Ship headed towards Earth and a brand new Enterprise (the Enterprise-JJ). Star Trek Into Darkness was a rip-off of ST:TWOK (even with some of the dialog). Star Trek Beyond destroyed the Enterprise like in ST:TSFS. So (and we kind of had this with the original ST4 plans) this new movie has to have some sort of Time Travel and a misunderstood alien that is attacking the Earth while trying to communicate. Can’t wait to see what JJ’s ST5’s god being will be like!
Hey, this is all meant to be fun ribbing of the Kelvin movies. I happen to really like ST09 and STB (really would’ve liked STID a lot more if it wasn’t done better back in 1982 and seen by me 1000000 times; if you ignore the ST:TWOK part, STID wasn’t a bad movie either).
I hope the next film will be more creative obviously. I don’t think any of the Kelvin movies were following the same pattern of the TOS films. Yes, a few similar elements here and there but none of it on purpose outside of TWOK/STID of course. But as much people give them grief about that majority of the movie was its own film. It’s really the ending where it hits (way) too close to home.
I thought the direction they went with in Beyond was fine. I liked all the fan nostalgia in it like the Enterprise call backs and the picture of the original cast at the end. None of was in your face like STID was with Khan. The movie still had its own problems but it was finally starting to feel like a TOS story and feeling like it’s own thing as well. That’s why fans appreciated it, but it didn’t feel like a must-see like the first two either and why it failed at the box office.
Someone at Paramount/CBS is making some majorly stupid decisions regarding social media. A bunch of images from Strange New Worlds were posted online, and instead of asking sites to take them down, Paramount/CBS is having Twitter suspend the accounts of everyone who just shared the initial tweet of the images. TrekCentral’s Twitter pages is now suspended, as are many others. This was an astoundingly bad move that has online fandom furious. Whoever did this just made things a lot harder for Paramount/CBS.
Wow. Were they reposted somewhere else?
Too bad though for those furious fans…sorry, not shedding a tear for that level of entitlement…how about just growing up?
Your response said nothing and meant less. But it proved Alfred right: some people just want to watch the world burn. So YOU grow up.
Why the personal attack??? My comment was not directed at you — I was talking about the fans you referred to who are upset that Paramount took stuff on Twitter (and temporarily froze some offending accounts) that was never suppose to be released? Weird!
Perhaps mix in an anger management mantra with your morning cup of asinine remarks tomorrow?
I will never understand how studios work sometimes. Unless its some major spoiler I don’t even get the issue for a show that will be out in a few months. I get Paramount wants to do the marketing on their own terms but once something is out, its out. You can’t put the Genie back in the bottle. Suspending accounts of these sites who basically help market your brand all year long is a bit silly. I imagine it will just be temporary though.
Well that’s all fine and good until it’s your company’s IP, or your family photos, that gets tweeted by people who violated legal agreements and/or your trust. :-)
Yesss! I love this cast, I hope we can get a great movie with a clever script.
I have a feeling all the shows will be tied into this
Oh gawd I truly hope not. This should be a KU film and not connect in any way to the P+ shows. In fact, it would be better for this film to distance itself from them as much as possible.
Can we not blast the Enterprise to shreds this time?
Why not? It’s not like it happened in Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond.
Oh.
Wait.
;-)
Well, Enterprise committed the 1701-J to canon, so I imagine we’ll be blowing her up a few more times.
At this rate we’ll get the 1701-J by the time Kirk is in his 50’s
Finally! I can’t wait for production to get going now.
AS I PREDICTED…that this time was for real given all the tea leaves that were there to read for those that wanted to do the work. It was just too lazy for some fans to just keep doubting given the reformulated studio obviously has its act together now, both production-wise and financially.
I wonder if they still have the Enterprise sets? I would not be opposed to them using the SNW sets and the SNW Enterprise starship design and just pretend the Kelvin E looked like that all along.
It is a rebuilt Enterprise. We’ve never seen the interior yet. So maybe. But I have serious doubts.
A small nit pick… I HATE that they put the letter A after the NCC-1701. Never liked that dopy letter thing at all.
One of the best lines in TNG…
“No bloody A, B or C.”
Agree completely on the letter thing…it’s going to be worse if the franchise keeps adding series for the next 25 years…maybe for the Enterprise-Q in 2055 they can bring in a CGI DeLancie for an ep to play Q so as to capitalize on the word play? LOL
I loved it. It mad the Enterprise a special ship because of Kirk and their crew. I hate it that Discovery did it to Voyager though.
After Spock says some technobabble, Kirk stands up from his chair, squints at camera dramatically and says “…time travel!”
Why?
Hey! Do ya’ll remember that one time that JJ Abrams was responsible for the worst Star Wars movie ever made?
And it wasn’t just one Star Wars movie…
The worst thing he did was make Luke Skywalker a worthless maguffin, the main character of the SAGA. He couldn’t write a decent arc for Rey, and he squandered the great story he had for Finn. By making him a punchline to a joke. He’s just a janitor. and taking Poe who could have had any kind of story and interesting possibility and just copying Han’s backstory. Rian in hindsight looks positively great for Last Jedi, the JJ movies are garbage.
JJ made Solo: A Star Wars Story?? Nope, don’t think so. Hands down the worst SW movie ever made…….
The ONE time?
With such a short production time (<1 year) I surmise the production budget will be much less than previous Kelvin movies and they will re-use and dress up existing Paramount+ Trek sets, props, costumes, effects. Along with the AI video wall set used in current season of Disco.
I wonder if cast has take. SS look art cuts due to COVID production hiatus and delays over the years?
What are these other stories JJ mentioned??
You know there’s a lot of money on the table when Paramount execs can force smiles on investor day and invite to speak the man who twice reneged on his production deal with them to go make Star Wars.
Good stuff… was hoping that they’d continue with the current cast.
For me, honestly I just hope they do a story where they manage to go back in time somehow and reset the universe… yep, bring Chris Hemsworth back in… the whole hog!
And this is the problem to me. Kelvin universe is its OWN universe. Just let it be. I don’t understand this need to ‘reset’ it?? Especially now that the Prime universe is back in full swing with multiple TV shows that will go on for years.
To me, while I enjoyed the 2009 movie and really liked Beyond (except for the villain’s poor motivation and overly extended fight sequences), the whole Kelvin-verse would feel more meaningful if it had some larger impact for the characters or universe. Thus, I would be interested in somehow “folding” the Kelvin-verse back into the Prime universe. Have some of the information or progress make it back to the Prime universe – like a reverse of Spock Prime’s journey. Our Prime universe heroes or the galaxy at large could benefit from the lessons learned about how not to do things like how they did them in the Kelvin-verse. If, as seems likely, this is the last of the Kelvin-verse adventures, it would be like avoiding the dreaded reset button after a big 4-parter.
OK I understand your point, but I just don’t see why it’s necessary either. It’s simply another parallel universe which has been part of Trek since TOS. This year there will be three separate Batmans roaming around in the movies. Most audiences just accept they all just do their own thing in their respective universes and if they happen to cross over (like Michael Keaton’s Batman will in the Flash film) great. But if not, they get to see different versions of them and leave it at that.
And I been saying this for years, Paramount would not want to reset a universe when the point was to make it distinct for merchandising purposes alone. But now that it’s the same corporation again, I guess that’s not a big issue. And Kelvin stuff has never been a big draw like the Prime universe stuff.
And of course that would basically wipe out the movies in themselves. The entire franchise would become these erased alternate timeline stories now. Again I don’t see why Paramount would want to do that.
Sometimes I really wish they just rebooted the Kelvin universe completely. Just let it stand on its own and I don’t think anyone would be begging to ‘reset’ it.
Going back in time just brings you further back in time to the kelvin universe. and going forward only brings you to the KT future. Spock couldn’t return to his own time. If he just slingshot around the sun he would have created another divergent KT but not returned to his own universe. Since every time in the KT you time travel you create another quantum reality branch. They changed the laws of time travel. I won’t be surprised though if Picard magically returns to the time travel rules of a Star Trek IV.
This exactly. Spock didn’t go back in time and create an alternate timeline. Nero created a black hole with red matter and in so doing created a mini universe within it and nero’s ship and spock’s ship traveled into it.
Remember that ep of DS9 where they had a proto-universe aboard the station and they were contemplating destroying it but they pointed out that billions of years could have passed within it? That is how I envision the Kelvin Universe within the black hole created by the red matter Nero created in ST 2009 in the Prime universe.
It’s going to be a lot of fun next year (assuming the film will come out in 2023 and I’m still highly skeptical about) that we’ll have two Spocks, two Uhuras and two Enterprises happening in the same year! Star Trek has been a multiverse forever but this will be the first time we see the clear distinction with two separate productions. It’s finally feeling like D.C. ;)
Edit: Forgot it won’t be the ‘same’ Enterprises since the KU moved on to the Enterprise A, but close enough!
Yup, if all goes as planned, the Star Trek multiverse will be on the big and small screens in 2023… and I thought 2022 was going to be great!
Yeah that’s what is so exciting about it to me, the Prime and Kelvin universes now actually running side by side! And of course the Kelvin universe finally felt more integral thanks to Picard and the Romulus explosion but then Discovery straight up acknowledging the universe itself last season with Yor.
I think in time, there will be a more direct crossover since they are all one big happy corporation again. Maybe no time soon, but its all possible now at least. Right now, it will just be fun to have them running together.
Star Trek Discovery acknowledged the existence of the KU? I know that show is difficult to pay attention to and remember things but I feel like I would have picked up on a reference as huge as that.
It was mentioned in the opening of Terra Firma Part 1!
And TM even made an entire article about it and it was passionately discussed over it’s implications about here:
https://trekmovie.com/2020/12/05/preview-for-next-weeks-star-trek-discovery-reveals-a-surprising-crossover/
It was the first time someone finally just said it was a parallel universe. Too bad it wasn’t mentioned somewhere sooner, it would’ve saved about ten years of fighting about it. ;)
All right. That was a thread I did not take part in.
Anyway, I barely recall that stuff. At the time I probably blew it off as nothing more than a wink to the fans. At least I am hoping that is all it is. I actually considered all of that stuff about how people from one universe will break down in another to be silly and it felt made up just for the Georgeau situation because the writers lack imagination to come up with a more reasonable solution to their self made problems. I consider that stuff best forgotten so I forgot it.
In all fairness it is very difficult to retain anything that happens on Star Trek Discovery. It’s just not a memorable show. That’s why I want recaps in front of every single episode. I often cannot recall what happened just the previous week! For the record I have no problem recalling the previous weeks Prodigy.
Obviously it’s just a wink for now, but same time with a dozen more Trek shows coming and at least one other Kelvin film, you can’t be too surprised if there is eventually a crossover at some point. It may not be soon, it may not be for a decade, but I imagine if they want to keep both universes vital someone is thinking of crossovers since every major sci fi/fantasy property is now doing it, at least the ones with a multiverse.
And every time someone says ‘that shouldn’t happen’, the franchise makes it happen over and over. We’ve heard people say you shouldn’t go past Nemesis in the timeline, bring back Q or the Borg, no more time travel stories and on and on.
It’s Star Trek none of this stuff is ever going away!
And that includes the Kelvin universe since a lot of fans wanted that dead and buried too. But I also remember a time some fans wanted the Prime universe dead and buried when the Kelvin films showed up as ridiculous of an idea that was.
Now they are both back and my guess is Paramount is going to take HUGE advantage of that, especially now that everything will live on Paramount+ until the sun implodes and create bigger tie ins with the brand (and lets be real, a big reason why this movie is even happening is probably thanks to Paramount+). Again I doubt any time soon, but you have to be crazy to think someone is not figuring out how to put Picard, Pike or even Burnham in that universe to make fans salivate since that can now be it.
Hopefully it won’t be done via the Nexus. ;D
Might just be two Chapel’s as well depending.
To this day I always wondered why Chapel wasn’t in the Kelvin films too. It’s OK she wasn’t, but just having her would’ve inched up the sad female quota in these movies just a little. But yeah she could be in the next one.
TBH, Chapel would have made more sense than Marcus in STID, minus the sexual tension of course, but Kelvin Kirk has that with everyone. And despite theories to the contrary, TOS Kirk didn’t LOL
Exactly! In fact it would’ve been fun to shake it up and put Kirk and Chapel together in STID. That’s the point of a different universe, shake it up a little bit. And since Spock was with Uhura, they could no longer do the Chapel crush subplot like on the show. But maybe that’s why she wasn’t in them, because sadly that’s all Chapel got in terms of ‘development’ on TOS.
I’m really happy she’ll be in SNW though! Can’t wait!
It’s going to be extremely difficult for them to top the Kurtzman Content or for Abrams himself to produce something better than his masterpiece, The Rise of Skywalker, but they’ve yet to let us down, so, we’re in for a treat!
I picked up on what you are saying and I don’t disagree with the sarcasm.
Good
YAAASSS! Cant wait. Need to do one every 2 years.
I am so excited! I love the Kelvin Timeline so much. The movies are very entertaining but I adore the ‘Star Trek: Ongoing’ and ‘Star Trek: Boldly Go’ comic series’ by IDW. Even the game for Xbox 360 was a lot of fun even if it wasn’t the best game ever.
Still can’t believe this is happening!!
Sorry for my skepticism folks. We’ve gotten this close before…. once the cast is signed and shooting begins, then I will truly get excited!
I hear you DeanH! I think most people won’t be convinced until the actors are on a set in costume spouting off lines. And I can’t blame anyone at this point.
The sad irony is if Pine got on board back in 2018 the fourth film would’ve been out a while ago now. Hopefully this will be something with a better story at least.
Good News
Let’s hope they have moved time on, beyond the 5 year mission.
Better than any of the current TV versions.
Great news finally & I just knew all along they would bring the Kelvin cast back for 1 last adventure (more if its a hit)! No point spending big on yet another new crew relaunch just go with what you have trim the budget a little make a decent movie above all else!!
You were completely right Paul! :)
I really doubted it would happen. But to be fair to me, I’m usually wrong about 80% of the time on these boards so there’s that!
I never doubted it! If not the Kelvin crew as I said previously no way they take a chance on yet another new crew as setup costs would be way more than paying Pine his $6M! Let this crew have a few more movies to establish themselves see how that plays out! More story & TOS crew interaction moments than mega expensive FX blowouts…but I expect this will be another mega FX blowout all the same!!
Well I still disagree about taking a chance on a new crew since that’s literally what Noah Hawley’s movie would’ve done and his was in pre-production before they cancelled it. But yes you can also argue maybe they felt it was too much of a risk and decided it was just safer to go with a crew people already know.
I personally would’ve preferred new characters but always said I would be fine to see at least one more Kelvin movie to wrap things up if they did come back and what they might be doing.
Wow, this is an interesting tidbit I found mention on the ‘other’ site:
Since then, insiders say the studio has done market research to determine audience interest in the rebooted cast, given the long wait period between “Beyond” — which lost money for Paramount — and a prospective new “Trek” film.
Execs determined that there was still lasting audience enthusiasm for Pine, Quinto and the rest of the cast in their established roles, which allowed the studio to feel comfortable with moving forward with bringing them back.
This makes a lot of sense. One it tells you the Kelvin cast wasn’t a sure bet and we know they been developing other film ideas without them, Noah Hawley’s being the biggest. But I can’t blame them for wanting to try again with the Kelvin characters because they have been the center of the movie series for over 10 years now. And they have sunk over half a billion of dollars into this universe easily.
I personally thought if it was time to do something totally different, this would definitely be the time. But reading this it now makes more sense.
The Kelvin characters has ALWAYS been popular IMO, it’s just the stories themselves that is where the ire has been the issue. You constantly hear people, even the ones who hate the movies or universe say they think the cast itself is great. I’ve always liked them too. I still think most fans can agree the first film did make them really shine, even with the (heavy) flaws in the story.
But I also have a feeling if this movie doesn’t do what they hope or fails like Beyond did, this will definitely be their swan song.
The fact that they admitted that Beyond lost money for Paramount actually fills me with some hope. I hope that they give us a story that is more on substance rather than spectacle since it would be cheaper.
Cheaper budget would force a better story, IMHO.
That is a double edge sword. They know full well that STID made money and Beyond under performed. Yet among fans the consensus is that Beyond was the better of the two. But studios may be looking only at the bottom line and make something more in line with STID. So be careful what you wish for…
But I think everyone also acknowledge Beyond did fail for other reasons too, one just being the awful marketing Paramount themselves did on the film.
But yeah I’ve always said as far as the general audience is concerned, STID was a much bigger crowd pleaser. That’s the problem when you get on sites like this, you are in this tiny bubble of a core group of hardened Star Trek fans, but we don’t represent the masses either. The reality is STID made more money and got stronger fan reviews than Beyond did. It was an overall better received movie by the masses. That’s just a fact no matter how much we think STID itself was a disaster of a film. Same issues like how people perceive many of the shows as well, old and new.
Honestly I just don’t see how it CAN’T be a cheaper budget at this point. It’s no longer 2013, these movies are a bigger risk today. Many of us assume the Kelvin cast wasn’t coming back because the hype and fanfare is simply gone compared to where it was a decade ago. And it will be seven years since we last saw them.
But hearing that there is a large chorus of people still invested in this cast, that’s a good sign obviously. That still doesn’t automatically translate into huge box office or anything. Liking a cast doesn’t mean everyone will just run out and see the film in the theaters, they just may be more inclined to see it. I think they really get that by now and the entire reason why they didn’t want to pay Pine his initial salary, because they knew (at least then) they had to make a cheaper film.
I suspect on a tighter budget, there will be less CGI foolery going on. You can get your protagonist and antagonist down to earth without plowing a starship through half of San Francisco. You don’t need to destroy the Enterprise one weld at a time. Stuff like that.
I know it comes down to money, but quality and long-lasting appeal should be considered. I believe the Star Trek movie with the smallest budget is ST II: Wrath of Khan, and that movie is still considered by most fans as the best Star Trek movie. AND it made a big profit.
We know the actors are more than capable, so it all comes down to having a great script. Not a good script, but a GREAT script.
Here’s an idea…..why doesn’t Paramount pull the best themes/ideas from the 10 most popular Star Trek fiction books written these last 20 years. Some of them had compelling storylines, much better than the action-driven drivel seen in the last few films.
Collect the ideas, mash the best themes together and then TRANSMOGRIFY it into one killer story. Massage and polish it until you have an epic feature film screenplay worthy of “Yesterday’s Enterprise” word of mouth.
A great story would pull in HUGE box office, yes, even in China.
Chris Pine needs an Ace after that last WW film.
I know this is probably not going to happen but I really wish for a movie without an actual villain obsessed with either revenge ir eternal life/youth. Exploration, adventure, mystery and a tad of philosophy and believable astro science… That would be the day…
And it doesn’t even need to be a “villain” in the classical sense. It could be some sort of natural phenomena or a “doomsday machine” sort of thing out there. Or someone doing something positive originally but things spiral out of control. There are plenty of other options besides, “I was wronged now everyone will pay!!!”
You already have that with The Voyage Home. That movie had no villain at all, really.
It also had some philosophical thought and a fun adventure. There ya go.
Nice! I hope the movie will be good.
They also should bring back Jaylah played by Sofia Boutella. She was great and another alien character is always good. She could be part of the Enterprise crew now.
They won’t have Uhura as the only female character in the movie so or so. Instead of introducing a new female character and forgetting her in the next movie like they have done before, they should reuse Jaylah, a character already established and liked by many.
This! Yes!
I think adding a KU Ilea is an interesting option.
Well that was unexpected…
Set in an alternate universe, the Kelvin timeline movies had great potential to explore if characters would make the same or different decisions than they did in the prime timeline… would Kirk decide to become an Admiral? Would he stay with Dr. Marcus somehow and raise a kid? Would Spock have a better relationship with his father? These types of issues would be core things to explore. So far it really hasn’t happened.
I wish they’d just leave it with this cast tbh. They’ve had their time, can’t we move onto something fresh and new?
We’ll have Ethan Peck playing Spock, as well as Zachary Quinto, and also Celia Rose Gooding plaing Uhura and Zoe Saldana reprising her role, all at the same time?
Frustrating. There’s a whole galaxy of characters that could be crafted, but yet we’re going to be getting stories about the same characters in multiple different mediums all at the same time.
This is daft.
More writers, must be better. The Hollywood credo. Please, no mystery boxes or threats to the galaxy. How about a decent plot with character interest? No extended fist fights or silly stunt sequences.
I think a take on “Mirror: Mirror” would make for one helluva good movie !
I was never a huge fan of the MU. Mirror Mirror was fun but that should have been it. DS9 went there 3 too many times and then Star Trek Discovery ruined it forever. Let’s just leave it buried now.
We already got it on Enterprise, DS9 and now Discovery. Chances are we will get it with other shows. I would prefer a film to do something different.
IMHO this is a tremendous opportunity to make a direct sequel to TMP. Start where Spock mind melds with V’ger and show how it impacts Spock. Kirk can check in as McCoy and Spock have Vulcan therapy sessions. I see this as “Analyze This” for Star Trek. Or maybe McCoy and Spock go on a mission and it’s Midnight Run, picking up from Beyond. I’m pitching a mid-80s character comedy. ((Seriously, I love the cast so I hope something cool happens).