‘Star Trek 4’: Up to Three Different Scripts Exist

The saga of the next Star Trek movie franchise’s may have just added another wrinkle.

Zachary Quinto was featured in a segment on Entertainment Tonight Canada and the star, who plays Spock in the Kelvin Timeline movies, spoke about the future of the franchise.

“First of all, I think there’s a couple of scripts,” Quinto says. “Because there was a script being written before Quentin Tarantino came up with his idea for a potential film. And so I think they are kind of developing more than one. So I don’t know what is going to happen. Quentin is off doing another movie. So, I feel like we are in a state of anticipation. All of us are really excited about the idea of working with Quentin on a Trek film, but I know Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, who wrote the last film, are writing a script and there are another set of writers writing a script. So I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

It’s a bit unclear if the end of Quinto’s statement, about there being another set of writers working parallel to Pegg and Jung, is a reference to the writers developing Tarantino’s script or another set of writers entirely. When Star Trek 4 was first announced, JD Payne and Patrick McKay were said to be writing the script, so perhaps that’s what Quinto is referring to.

That would make a lot of sense given that Pegg himself recently stated that a script for Star Trek 4 was written before Tarantino’s pitch was made.

“There’s a script that’s been written,” Pegg revealed, “and there’s also the story of Quentin Tarantino coming and chatting with JJ about an idea that he’s had for a long time. That idea is going into the writer’s room to be looked at.”

While Pegg could have been referring to his and Jung’s script – assuming it is complete – it seems likely that he was referring to Payne and McKay’s script, since that would have been the earliest script in development for Star Trek 4. That story would have brought Chris Hemsworth back as George Kirk’s father and seen him play the character opposite Chris Prine as George’s son, Captain James Kirk. Hemsworth has stated recently that he’s received no updates on Star Trek 4 or his involvement with it.

Tarantino’s pitch was made public late in 2017. Paramount soon after convened a writers room to develop the project, with Mark L. Smith penning the script. While plot details are being kept under wraps, the pitch is reportedly based on an idea he’s shared with some of the cast, including Pegg, previously. Tarantino would ideally direct the film, but Paramount is reportedly still open to bringing in another director

While these conflicting scripts and reports can be frustrating, the upside that Quinto points out is that Paramount seems committed to bringing Star Trek back to the big screen in the near future rather than shelving the franchise for the time being.

“The good news is that, hopefully, it means we will be able to make more movies, because we love each other and love that experience and I would love to continue to tell those stories as well, in the midst of doing other stuff,” Quinto said.

Quinto’s co-star, Karl Urban, is even more confident, saying he expects the cast to reconvene to begin shooting the next Star Trek film within a year.

Are these competing scripts goods news or bad news for the Star Trek movie franchise? Let us know 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.