New Star Trek Movie Removed From Paramount Release Calendar
Well, it looks like Star Trek fans are going to have to wait even longer than expected to see the fourth film in the Chris Pine movie franchise. Pine and most of the main cast from the Kelvin films are on-board for a fourth installment, which was supposed to hit theaters in 2023. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. Paramount has opted to take the new Star Trek off the calendar entirely.
On Tuesday, Paramount officially removed Star Trek 4 from its release calendar. The film had initially been set to hit theaters on June 9, 2023, before being delayed to December 22nd of the same year. Now, the movie is on the shelf for the foreseeable future.
This shouldn't come as much of a surprise, considering the new Star Trek just lost its director. WandaVision and Game of Thrones director Matt Shakman was originally tapped to helm the project, but he recently left in order to direct Fantastic Four for Marvel Studios. The search is now on for a replacement. Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet wrote the screenplay.
"Matt Shakman is an incredibly talented filmmaker, and we regret the timing didn't align for him to direct our upcoming Star Trek film," Paramount Pictures said in a statement after Shakman's departure. "We are grateful for his many contributions, are excited about the creative vision of this next chapter and look forward to bringing it to audiences all around world."
While there is no director in place for the next Star Trek film at this moment, the big screen future of the franchise remains a focal point for Paramount.
"Going forward, I'm focused on our franchises," Paramount Pictures president Brian Robbins told Variety earlier this year. "We are fortunate in that we have amazing franchises, which we need to lean into. We have adult franchises like Mission: Impossible, A Quiet Place, Transformers and Star Trek. And we have family franchises with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and SpongeBob. You've got to have multi-year plans for these franchises. You can't just make a movie, see how it does, and then decide to make another one, because if you do that, it will be years between sequels. Like Sonic, we're going to take a spinoff character Knuckles, and do a miniseries on Paramount+, which will transition us into the third Sonic movie with lots of Easter eggs. That planning is what I'm focused on, as well as filling out the slate with filmmakers that we're passionate about who want to tell stories that they have passion for. That allows us to greenlight things like the new movie we have from Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the South Park guys, who are working on a movie with Kendrick Lamar that's so far out, it could break through the zeitgeist."
Who would you like to see direct Star Trek 4? Let us know in the comments!