Paramount Pictures has quite a few successful franchises, but the fact the studio hasn't been able to do more with Star Trek is mind-boggling.
When J.J. Abrams relaunched the franchise in 2009, the stage was set for it to become a mainstream property, and its sequels were also moderate box office hits. Unfortunately, Star Trek 4 has been trapped in development hell for several years now.
The movie has been through multiple creative teams and just about everyone was left scratching their heads when Abrams announced the cast would return for a fourth instalment, despite none of them having been approached about the project (which eventually lost director Matt Shakman to The Fantastic Four).
Star Trek has found great success on streaming in recent years, of course, and new upcoming projects include the Michelle Yeoh-led Section 31 and YA series, Starfleet Academy.
Variety has intel on what else is planned, including a possible television movie which will serve as a follow-up to Picard starring Sir Patrick Stewart. However, there are ambitious plans for theatrical releases as well.
Paramount reportedly intends to still make the "final chapter" of the Chris Pine-led era of Star Trek movies, with Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant) attached to write a new draft of the screenplay. However, it looks like Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) and Toby Haynes' (Andor) project is up next and will begin pre-production by the end of 2024.
That "will serve as an origin story of sorts for the main timeline of the entire franchise," with the studio "focused on rightsizing the budgets to fit within the clear box office ceiling for 'Star Trek' feature films" in the case of both movies.
Elsewhere in the piece, Alex Kurtzman - who oversees all of the franchise's television endeavours - describes Star Trek as "an institution" and acknowledges the series isn't an easy one to share with the masses.
"Doing 'Star Trek' means that you have to deliver something that’s entirely familiar and entirely fresh at the same time," he explains. "You cannot create new fans to the exclusion of old fans. You must serve your primary fan base first and you must keep them happy. That is one of the most important steps to building new fans."
Akiva Goldsman, who is co-showrunner of Strange New Worlds, also sums up one of the biggest challenges with Star Trek: "It’s not the largest fan base. It’s not 'Star Wars.' It’s certainly not Marvel."
Stay tuned for updates.