Star Trek: Simon Pegg Uncertain About Future Movies

Star Trek movies star Simon Pegg isn’t sure about the future of the franchise. While there are two new Star Trek movies in the works at Paramount Pictures, Pegg doesn’t know what that means for himself and the rest of the cast of the most recent three Star Trek movies. In conversation with Collider, Pegg said that the death of co-star Anton Yelchin still hangs heavy on the cast. “One thing I did mention when I spoke about it recently is that for us, losing Anton Yelchin the way we did was a real blow,” Pegg says. “And I think it slightly took the wind out of our sails in terms of our enthusiasm to do another one, just because we’re now missing one of our family. He would be conspicuous by his absence.

“We’re all still in contact, we were emailing with each other the other day, just checking in, ‘how are we,’ and stuff,” he continues. “But it’s not like any of us have been banging on the door at Paramount saying, ‘Hey, when are we doing this?’ If they say, ‘We’d like to do another movie,’ I’m sure we’ll all jump at the chance. I miss those guys, and I love making those films. But I just don’t know. Noah Hawley’s project has been mentioned, and maybe that will happen. I don’t know anything about that. So yeah, I’m as in the dark as everyone else, I’m in the same boat as you guys.”

Pegg goes on to say that Star Trek‘s appeal may not be as universal as it needs to be in order to compete as a modern blockbuster film franchise. He suggests its future may be on television, where the franchise began, and where it continues to expand.

“The fact is, the appeal of Star Trek is slightly more niche than the appeal of, say, the Marvel movies, which make huge amounts of money, and have this really, really broad appeal and they do very well,” Pegg says. “I think Star Trek is just a little bit more niche, so it isn’t gonna hit those kind of numbers. So yes, the obvious thing to do would be to not go for that massive spectacle, go for something a little bit more restrained in the vein of the original series. Yes, that would be a brilliant thing to do, and I’m sure it probably has been discussed… You specialize a little bit more.

“Maybe TV is a better place for [Star Trek] now. Television has evolved so much. It’s become something which is very much a contemporary, a peer of cinema. It’s simply viewed in a different way. It isn’t a reduced scope anymore. You can still do masses of interesting things, and it can still look modern and not inexpensive. Maybe television is a better format for Star Trek. That’s where it started, you know.”