‘Star Trek 4’ Has Allegedly Been Shelved
After losing lead actors Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth, along with director S. J. Clarkson, Paramount has apparently shelved development on on a fourth Star Trek movie in the Kelvin Timeline series.
In a Deadline report revealing that Clarkson is in-line to direct the premiere episode of the Game of Thrones prequel The Long Night, the writer of that piece revealed that her planned installment in the J. J. Abrams-produced series is no longer moving forward:
“I hear Clarkson was recruited by HBO for [Game of Thrones] after she recently became available. Earlier this year, Clarkson was the first female director to be tapped to direct a Star Trek movie when she was hired to helm the fourth feature in the current series. That project has since been shelved.”
Considering the lack of any movement on the project since it was revealed that Pine and Hemsworth walked from the project following a pay dispute, this development is unsurprising, but still disappointing nonetheless. With Star Trek Beyond underperforming and losing upwards of $50M for Paramount, it seemed as though this project was meant to be a “Hail Mary” to continue (or conclude) this line of stories, but for now, it looks like this story won’t actually go beyond Beyond.
This is not to say that Star Trek does not have a future on the big screen. Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek pitch, for instance, is still moving forward, although it will likely have zero connection to the Kelvin Timeline movies. Meanwhile, CBS All Access will be the place to go for most Trekkies to get their fix, as aside from the ongoing series Star Trek Discovery, there’s also the Star Trek: Lower Decks animated series in development, plus currently-untitled shows focused on Khan Noonien Singh and Jean-Luc Picard. If CBS and Paramount reunite under Viacom (something that’s deemed as possible following the successful merger between AT&T and WarnerMedia), there could be even more content for the long-running franchise in the pipeline. Regardless of what becomes of this particular iteration of the franchise, Star Trek will continue to live long and prosper.
Grant Davis is a freelance writer who has covered entertainment news for more than seven years. His articles have frequently appeared in Star Wars News Net as well as as other entertainment-related websites. As someone who grew up on Star Wars and comic book movies, he’s completely thrilled with the current era of genre entertainment.
