Star Trek to Reunite JJ Abrams and Chris Pine's Crew for New Movie

The next Star Trek movie from producer J.J. Abrams will reunite Chris Pine's cast for an all-new adventure. The announcement was made during the ViacomCBS Investors Event by Abrams. As of now the only cast member to engage in contract talks is Chris Pine, who portrayed James T. Kirk in 2009's Star Trek, 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness, and 2016's Star Trek Beyond. Paramount Pictures is hopeful to also bring back Zachary Quinto (Spock), Zoe Saldana (Lieutenant Uhura), Karl Urban (Dr. Bones McCoy), John Cho (Sulu), and Simon Pegg (Scotty).

Matt Shakman will helm the next iteration of Star Trek. He recently worked on Marvel Studios' first live-action series, WandaVision, on Disney+. 

"We are thrilled to say that we are hard at work on a new Star Trek film that will be shooting by the end of the year that will be featuring our original cast and some new characters that I think are going to be really fun and exciting and help take Star Trek into areas that you've just never seen before," Abrams said. "We're thrilled about this film, we have a bunch of other stories that we're talking about that we think will be really exciting so can't wait for you to see what we're cooking up. But until then, live long and prosper."

Paramount attempted to reunite this cast for director S.J. Clarkson's sequel, which Clarkson signed on for in 2018. The film would have also brought back Chris Hemsworth as James Kirk's father, who died in the 2009 movie. However, deals between Paramount, Pine, and Hemsworth ultimately weren't reached, leading to the film being shuttered.

Variety reports that getting this cast back together has been a priority at Paramount. The roadblock has been the ever-growing busy schedules of the main cast, with many adding high-profile franchises to their resumes in the years since their last appearance together. For example, Chris Pine stars in Warner Bros.' Wonder Woman franchise; Zachary Quinto headlined AMC's NOS4A2; Zoe Saldana has Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, with its third installment currently filming as well as James Cameron's Avatar sequels; Karl Urban has Prime Video's The Boys series which is prepping for a Season 3 premiere later this year; John Cho played the protagonist in Netflix's adaptation of the Cowboy Bebop anime; and Simon Pegg has Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible franchise, with the seventh movie slated to debut in 2023.

Are you excited to see this Star Trek cast make its return to the big screen? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

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