While the Star Trek franchise has found success on television in recent years, it's currently in something of a transitional period. Despite moving on from the "NuTrek" streaming era to a shift in focus to theatrical titles, it looked like Starfleet Academy might be an indication of what's next...until it was cancelled after two seasons.
Strange New Worlds will end after Season 5, and the Star Trek 4 movie starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and Zoe Saldaña has finally been abandoned. A Starfleet origin movie from Seth Grahame-Smith and Toby Haynes was first mentioned in 2024, but more recently, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley were tapped to helm a big-screen reboot.
Much of the uncertainty surrounding Star Trek has been blamed on Skydance's acquisition of Paramount Pictures last summer. Now, with the company setting its sights on a $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, will the long-running sci-fi series be lost in the shuffle?
Alex Kurtzman has been overseeing Star Trek on TV, but his contract with CBS Studios and Paramount ends this year. In a recent interview with TrekMovie.com (before Starfleet Academy's cancellation), the filmmaker shared what he knows about the Trekdom's future.
"What I can tell you, honestly, is that it’s not just what does Skydance want with Star Trek TV. Skydance also just bought Warner Bros. And so you have an unbelievable amount [Laughs] — like, it’s almost inconceivable amount of organizational things to decide, right? They are in the middle of — it’s not just drinking from one firehose, there’s probably ten thousand hoses."
"And so everything is just happening slower as a result of this massive time of transition. And that is not exclusive to Star Trek. That’s across the board," Kurtzman continued. "And at the same time, they’re moving as quickly as they can and should, because they want to be thoughtful and methodical."
Despite making plans to move on from Star Trek's lengthy stint as a streaming property, Paramount Skydance clearly values what Kurtzman has done in recent years. He confirmed, "Yes, I’ve had conversations with them about the future of Star Trek. Yes, we’ve gotten nothing but support. Yes, there have been specific shows that have been discussed. And we’ll see."
"I’m truly at the beginning of the conversation with them now. And so I hesitate to say anything to you, because I don’t have anything to report yet. But I can report that the conversations are happening." Kurtzman later said that those will be "new shows" as well as "the shows we already have," though something has clearly changed since this conversation took place, because Starfleet Academy is now no more.
Similar to Disney's plan to bring Star Wars back to theaters, that's clearly Paramount Skydance's main goal for Star Trek. The franchise has never quite found the same level of success in film as a certain Galaxy Far, Far Away, so the pressure will be on any creatives to help change that.
Stay tuned for updates on the Star Trek franchise as we have them.