While the Kelvin Timeline film series has been thought to be relatively dead after series lead Chris Pine walked away from negotiations with Paramount Pictures last summer, it seems that the long-awaited Star Trek 4 may be warming up its warp core with the news that writer/director Noah Hawley is nearly set to take over the next movie.

Breaking via Deadline Hollywood tonight, the showrunner of the just-concluded X-Men universe series Legion and the ongoing Fargo — both staples of cable network FX for the last few years — has been tapped, and is in final talks now, to beam aboard the next Bad Robot-produced Star Trek film as both writer and director.

Deadline writes:

Paramount Pictures is in final talks with Noah Hawley to write and direct the next Star Trek film. Through his 26 Keys production banner he will produce along with JJ Abrams and his Bad Robot banner.

[The] understanding is Hawley will helm the fourth film in this iteration of the venerable franchise, with the Enterprise crew led by Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg and Karl Urban.

While Fargo especially has been met with praise by television critics over its three-year-run — a fourth season is already in the works to star Chris Rock — Hawley’s feature film debut, Lucy in the Sky, debuted in 2019 to limited success.

Star Trek 4 — a placeholder title, of course, to represent the fourth Kelvin Timeline film — was first set to be helmed by director S.J. Clarkson as of April 2018, however she left the project after negotiations with Pine fell apart last August.

In addition to whatever plans Hawley may have for the Star Trek film franchise, the long-gestating Quentin Tarantino project has also been brewing for some time, though news on that front has been quiet for several months due to that filmmaker’s promotional commitments to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

While there’s no word yet on what type of storyline the newest iteration of Star Trek 4 may take — or whether Marvel Studios star Chris Hemsworth is still in the mix to return as George Kirk — the expectation (per Deadline) is that this movie will in fact retain film series regulars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, and the rest.

“Chekov” actor Anton Yelchin, who sadly passed away after an accident in 2016, would not be recast, said executive producer J.J. Abrams in July of that year.

We’ll bring you more on the next chapter in the Star Trek film franchise as it breaks!