‘Star Trek 4’: John Cho Remains “Optimistic”

Just as Star Trek 4 seemed poised to get off the ground, it all came crashing to a halt, but one member of the Enterprise crew still sees a bright future ahead for the film series.

John Cho plays Hikaru Sulu in the Kelvin timeline Star Trek films. While he doesn’t have any new news to share about the status of Star Trek 4, he remains optimistic that he and his co-stars will make at least one more Star Trek movie.

“I sadly don’t have any news for you, I wish I more for you there though,” Cho tells The Playlist. “I don’t know what the ins and outs at the studio are but I am optimistic there will be another one because I’m optimistic about what Star Trek says and its place in our culture and I think it will come back around. I think its an important part of American popular culture that speaks to America’s best impulses and I think that there will always be a place for Star Trek films and I just hope to be in it and there isn’t another totally different group of people! I’m bullish about it, and honestly, for personal reasons I suppose the last film has a cloud over it, losing Anton [Yelchin] after the last one and for me it would be important personally to make one more at least. I think it would alleviate that part of us a little bit to make at least one more.”

Star Trek 4 was expected to be a father-son time travel tale involving Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk meeting his dead father, Chris Hemsworth’s George Kirk, but both stars dropped out of the project after contract negotiations stalled.

Recasting George would be relatively simple. Hemsworth is a big star, but he was only in the opening prologue of Star Trek. Recasting Captain Kirk would be a significantly larger challenge.

The film was expected to begin filming in early 2019 with SJ Clarkson directing and was reportedly eyeing Black Panther and The Walking Dead star Danai Gurira for one of two major new female characters in the film.

Are you still as optimistic as John Cho about the future of the Star Trek movies? Do you think they should recast Captain Kirk and his father? Do you think there’s still hope for Pine and Hemsworth to return? Let us know what you think in the comments!

The first three Kelvin timeline Star Trek movies – Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Star Trek Beyond – are all available now on home media.