Star Trek 4 Announcement Surprised the Cast, Possibly Hurting the Movie

Paramount’s planned return to the world of Star Trek feature films may hit a bit of a stumbling block: its cast. The recent announcement of a planned fourth installment in J.J. Abrams’s “Kelvin Timeline” Star Trek series was such a surprise that even members of the cast had no idea that the announcement was coming, let alone that Abrams would be promising their return as part of the deal. According to The  Hollywood Reporter, that might make the financial terms of a fourth Star Trek film even harder to hammer out than they already were, as Paramount will have to lock down as many cast members as possible to save face.

Star Trek has been a staple of Paramount’s streaming strategy, with Star Trek: Discovery being the first huge hit for Paramount+, way back when it was still called CBS All Access. Other recent Trek launches include Star Trek: Prodigy and Picard, with more on the way. The THR article speculates that while a bloated budget for another Abrams-produced Trek might have seemed like a dicey proposition five years ago, it likely makes more sense now.

“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,” Abrams said during a Wall Street event on February 15. “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.”

2016’s Star Trek Beyond was more well-liked than Star Trek Into Darkness, but provided the smallest box office haul of the three Abrams-produced Trek movies. Attempts to create a fourth with director SJ Clarkson fell by the wayside, reportedly over budgetary and salary concerns, while prestige stand-alone projects from Noah Hawley and Quentin Tarantino evaporated after years of rumors.

“Honestly, I have no real idea what’s going on with Star Trek. [But] we all love each other and we all love that experience and I’m sure if it comes back around and we’re all available, I’m sure we’d be happy to jump back on board. No pun intended,” franchise star Zachary Quinto told PopCulture in 2018. “But I don’t know — that’s in other people’s hands and I know I, for one, have had sort of moved on in terms of any kind of expectations, but you never know things come back in surprising ways and it’s surprising times, and it could be fun if it happens.”

Scheduling with the Kelvin Timeline cast is likely to be a frustrating process, especially if Paramount is really committed to getting the film off the ground this year. Zoe Saldana is currently working on Guardians of the Galaxy and James Cameron’s Avatar sequels, Karl Urban has The Boys, and so on. The star power of the cast makes throwing something together quickly a near-impossibility.

Are you excited to see the fourth installment in J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek series? Sound off in the comments below.