Today on Paramount’s investor day presentation this afternoon, Star Trek Kelvin Timeline executive producer JJ Abrams made it clear that the next Trek film — currently scheduled for December 2023 — is going to be a return to his theatrical universe.
While Abrams’ statement referred to only the “original cast” when describing plans for the movie, which he said would be in production by the end of 2022, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Deadline each confirmed that the films is to focus on the Kelvin Timeline crew — seen previously in the 2009 Star Trek film, 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, and 2016’s Star Trek Beyond.
JJ Abrams’ statement:
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.
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.
Variety’s report also added some interesting insight into the move in returning to the Kelvin Timeline; despite the long break since the last film in 2016, market research seems to indicate that there’s enough moviegoer demand for the Abrams cast to make their efforts to reunite those original starts with the effort.
Since then, insiders say the studio has done market research to determine audience interest in the rebooted cast, given the long wait period between “Beyond” — which lost money for Paramount — and a prospective new “Trek” film.
Execs determined that there was still lasting audience enthusiasm for Pine, Quinto and the rest of the cast in their established roles, which allowed the studio to feel comfortable with moving forward with bringing them back.
Of course we’ve heard much of this all before, with an end to the Kelvin Timeline seeming likely after previous financial negotiations with Chris Pine fell apart in 2018 — so while this kind of thing seems like it wouldn’t be so publicly discussed if things weren’t moving back to fruition, we’ll still be waiting for formal news of contract sign-offs.
The untitled 2023 Star Trek film is set to be directed by Matt Shakman, with today’s announcement signaling an intention to bring back Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Simon Pegg as Scotty, and John Cho as Sulu.
Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the previous films, passed away in 2016 and his role is not expected to be recast.