We recently learned that Paramount Pictures is finally making moves to bring the Star Trek franchise back to theaters. However, a fourth instalment in the J.J. Abrams-produced franchise getting yet another writer is news to lead star Chris Pine.
The actor first played Captain Kirk in 2009's Star Trek, later reprising the role in 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness and 2016's Star Trek Beyond.
Abrams announcing a fourth instalment a few years back left most of the cast scratching their heads as none of them were signed up to appear at the time. Now, after several aborted launches, Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant) is the latest scribe to take a crack at the screenplay.
Asked about that by Business Insider, Pine said, "I honestly don’t know. There was something in the news of a new writer coming on board. I thought there was already a script, but I guess I was wrong, or they decided to pivot. As it’s always been with ‘Trek,’ I just wait and see."
Quentin Tarantino, Matt Shakman, Lindsey Beer, and Geneva Robertson-Dworet are just some of the names attached to Star Trek 4 in recent years. If the movie does fail to materialise, Paramount is hedging its bets with another prequel from writer Seth Grahame-Smith and Toby Haynes, and a mysterious project being developed by Kalinda Vazquez.
While Pine and the rest of the cast have largely moved on from Star Trek, he admits that it wasn't until Beyond he got fully comfortable with playing the character.
"It’s interesting. Karl Urban decided to go head first into McCoy because Karl loved 'Star Trek,'" Pine explained. "With Spock, you have to do Spock-like things, plus Zach [Quinto] kind of looked like Leonard [Nimoy]. And then Kirk is a tricky one. You are the lead of the band of characters, so you don’t want to occupy too much space."
|It’s fine if they are doing a thing, but you don’t want to. And J.J. [Abrams] never asked me to do a thing, though I did do little nods to Shatner because it was fun," he continued. "But I would say I felt most in his shoes in the third movie. By that point, I think I mellowed into it and didn’t feel like I was trying too hard."
Only time will tell whether Pine gets another chance to play Kirk. We'd certainly like to think so because there's more to be done with this roster of characters; on the other hand, so much time has passed since the last movie, a fresh start for Star Trek may also be beneficial.