After eight long years, Paramount Pictures today announced that they are ending all development work on the long-gestating fourth entry in the Star Trek Kelvin Timeline film series.
“It’s clear that Star Trek 4 was just not coming together,” said Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins in a statement released today. “While we have great respect for our relationship with JJ Abrams and Bad Robot — and of course Chris Pine and his wonderful castmates — it’s time to move forward.”
“After audiences praised Tom Cruise’s return to flight in Top Gun: Maverick,” Robbins continued, “The celebrated reunion of the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast in Star Trek: Picard through our digital platform, Paramount+ — along with the success found in revivals of other celebrated franchises in recent years — the power of nostalgia is clear.
With that in mind, I’m pleased to announce today the nostalgic reunion of Enterprise crew in Star Trek 5 — with the marvelous Chris Pine as Captain Kirk – and director J.J. Abrams returning to lead the project. It worked for Microsoft when they skipped from Windows 8 to Windows 10, so we’re trying the same thing for Star Trek.”
The now-tossed Star Trek 4 went through many iterations since the first announcement in July 2016, including a story by legendary Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino, a surprise 2022 Kelvin cast announcement that apparently Chris Pine and company only learned about through the press, and prequel story set “decades before the 2009 film.”
Following the new Star Trek 5 announcement, star Chris Pine reportedly reacted “with a deep sigh” according to Deadline. “Chris is excited learn about this new film through today’s studio announcement,” said a representative for the actor, “because it went really well the last time this happened, right?”
Also expected for the Trek 5 reunion are co-stars Zachary Quinto (Spock), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty), Karl Urban (“Bones” McCoy), and John Cho (Sulu). Actor Anton Yelchin, who portrayed Chekov in the first three films, passed away in 2016.
While little is known about the planned story of this new film, sources close to Trek 5 development hear that Paramount is pursuing Dune and Wonka star Timothée Chalamet for the role of “Sybok,” half-brother of Spock, originated by actor Laurence Luckinbill in 1989.
We’ll continue to monitor this story and bring you all the updates on Star Trek 5 as they come.