Star Trek has found new life via streaming platforms thanks to multiple new Trek series on (or heading) to Paramount+. However, that success hasn’t translated to new big-screen adventures in the way it once did. Plans for a new Trek movie starring Chris Pine and the rest of the Enterprise crew from the Kelvin timeline have stalled multiple times over the past several years. Yet we now have a bit of new info about a version of the fourth installment that was once in development and perhaps still could happen one day. And interestingly enough, these details involve J.J. Abrams.
Lindsay Anderson Beer was one of a several different screenwriters who tackled a version of the film, which was intended to serve as a follow-up to 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. The writer of the Stephen King-endorsed Pet Sematary: Bloodlines revealed to Comicbook.com that she wrote two different drafts of that fourth movie, which franchise producer J.J. Abrams actually provided the original idea for. She explained…
I wrote a couple drafts of that before I had to leave for Pet Sematary. And it was originally, the seed of the idea came from J.J. himself, who’s such a creatively generous person, and it was amazing collaborating with him. And it was very sad to leave our Zoom sessions to focus on [Pet Sematary: Bloodlines], but this was my baby, so I had to prioritize.
There are no details on just what this idea was exactly. While Lindsay Anderson Beer is no longer working on the script, that doesn’t mean there may not be somebody else currently working on the project and picking up where she left off. At least, that may be the case now. The Star Trek 4 script had been collecting dust during the writer’s strike. There’s surely a possibility that since Hollywood’s various scribes are now working again, someone might give the screenplay another pass. (That’s all speculation, of course.)
The last Trek film wasn’t exactly a flop, but Beyond wasn’t the massive box office hit many at the studio level were hoping it would be. That seems to have really slowed the franchise’s momentum as far as feature films are concerned. At one point, there were plans for an installment that would’ve seen Chris Hemsworth reprise his role as the father of Chris Pine’s James Kirk. The character died during the prologue of the 2009 flick that launched the film series but would’ve returned via time travel. However, some element, seemingly the the A-lister’s salary, may have partially hindered the production from taking off.
While it’s now been quite some time since the last film, it seems there’s still interest in producing another film. Spock actor Zachary Quinto, for instance, said he was down to return if another movie came to fruition. I’d say there’s a good chance the Star Trek franchise will return to theaters at some point — it’s just hard to predict when that might happen. Until then, you can stream the first three installments in the Kelvin timeline franchise using a Paramount+ subscription.