Multiple 'Star Trek' Movies May Be in the Works

The Star Trek film franchise seems to be in something of a holding pattern for now, but could that just be the quiet before the storm?

Star Trek movie star Zachary Quinto, who plays the Kelvin timeline's Spock, spoke to The Observer and said that the enthusiasm for Star Trek is high at Paramount Pictures, so much so that they may actually be planning multiple movies at the same time.

"I mean the only thing I can say is there's a lot of energy around more movies," Quinto said. "Which ones are going to happen, which ones might happen first? I can't really say, I don't know honestly. I know there are lots of conversations being had about it. I know there are plans afoot to do at least one if not more movies."

Over the past few weeks, it has come out that more than one Star Trek movie script exists. One is written by JD Payne and Patrick McKay and involves Captain Kirk's father, George Kirk, who was played by Chris Hemsworth and died in 2009's Star Trek. The second script is being written by Mark L. Smith based on a pitch made by famed director Quentin Tarantino to Star Trek director and producer JJ Abrams.

It was previously assumed that these two scripts were competing Star Trek 4 scripts. Based on Quinto's comments, it is possible that they could be independent projects.

Star Trek 4 was announced, with Payne and McKay writing the script and Hemsworth returning, just before the release of Star Trek Beyond into theaters. After Beyond underperformed at the box office, Paramount went silent on Star Trek 4's future.

Quinto seems to credit Paramount's new management, having recently replaced several key corporate figures, with the renewed buzz around the Star Trek film franchise.

"I know Paramount, under their new administration, is eager to keep the franchise going," he said. "I feel like as soon as we go reconvene and then there's a script that the studio believes in and a director, whether it's Quentin or somebody else, that comes up… Hopefully, we'll move it all forward. I'm pretty sure Quentin is doing his other project, which he wrote, so that might kind of contextualize things in terms of the chronology of how we might make more than one movie if we make more than one movie."

Previously, Quinto's co-star, Karl Urban, has said he's confident that the cast will reconvene to begin filming the next Star Trek movie within a year.

Are you excited to hear that multiple Star Trek movies could be in the works? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!