Star Trek 4 Gets Major Update

A new Star Trek movie has been revealed to be in development, just not one featuring the rebooted cast of J.J. Abrams Star Trek, but an update on that series also arrived. In the initial report on this new Star Trek movie, Deadline revealed that in addition to this new project (“an origin story that takes place decades” the 2009 feature film) that development also continues on Star Trek 4. To make things even more interesting, the potential Star Trek 4 movie is referred to as “the final chapter” in that series, meaning one last ride for the cast of the rebooted Star Trek series.

Development on Star Trek 4 has been on again and off again over the years since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. Initially a fourth movie from scribes J.D. Payne and Patrick McCay was confirmed, with the movie set to bring back Chris Hemsworth as George Kirk, Captain James T. Kirk’s father, whom Hemsworth played in the opening of 2009’s Star Trek. It’s unclear what sort of time travel shenanigans might have happened in that movie, but S. J. Clarkson was attached to direct the project, which would have taken advantage of Hemsworth’s propelled stardom after appearing as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

That version of Star Trek 4 stalled out after Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pine dropped out of negotiations for the movie. Around that time however is when the biggest surprise in the series happened, with Academy Award winner Quentin Tarantino became attached to a Star Trek movie. Eventually though, the Chris Hemsworth-starring Star Trek 4 and Quentin Tarantino’s movie were put on ice, with Star Trek: Discovery writer Kalinda Vasquez hired to pen a new take on Star Trek 4. When that didn’t work out, WandaVision director Matt Shakman was hired to get the project going from a script by Lindsey Beer & Geneva Robertson-Dworet. Shakman left Star Trek 4 to helm Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four, with no replacement director confirmed yet.

“I wrote a couple drafts of that before I had to leave for Pet Sematary. And it was originally, the seed of the idea came from J.J. himself, who’s such a creatively generous person, and it was amazing collaborating with him,” Anderson Beer previously shared with ComicBook.com about Star Trek 4. “And it was very sad to leave our Zoom sessions to focus on [Pet Sematary: Bloodlines], but this was my baby, so I had to prioritize.”  

It’s unclear when Star Trek 4 will finally be released, or even who will be in the cast, but that development continues is certainly something of note despite multiple other projects also being in the works.