Paramount Skydance Confirming New Star Trek Movie After 10-Year Hiatus Is A Familiar Refrain

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Published Apr 17, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT

John Orquiola is a New & Classic TV Editor, Senior Writer, and Interviewer with a special focus on Star Trek. John has over 5,000 published articles at SR, and he has interviewed the biggest names in Star Trek on the red carpet and VIP events, among other beloved shows, movies, and franchises.

A new Star Trek movie is coming, but this is a promise fans have heard ad nauseam for ten years. Paramount Skydance's presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas included an announcement of a new Star Trek movie in development, which is the first official confirmation from Paramount Skydance's new management run by CEO David Ellison.

10 years ago, Paramount Pictures released Star Trek Beyond, which was the last Star Trek movie fans saw in theaters. Executive produced by David Ellison and Skydance Media, produced by J.J. Abrams, and directed by Justin Lin, Star Trek Beyond underperformed at the box office relative to 2009's Star Trek and 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness. As a result, the Star Trek movie franchise went into drydock and has remained there ever since.

While Star Trek's TV arm became a streaming franchise on Paramount+ starting with Star Trek: Discovery in 2017, Paramount's film division mounted many attempts to bring Star Trek back from development hell. High profile directors with varying takes on Star Trek 4, like S.J. Clarkson, Matt Shakman, and Quentin Tarantino came and went, citing "creative differences."

After nearly a decade, Star Trek 4 was officially canceled by Paramount Skydance's new regime in November 2025, cutting loose the popular cast led by Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Mr. Spock.

Paramount Skydance may have officially confirmed Star Trek's movie future, but it all still feels like the same old, same old to a fandom that has heard all of this before.

Paramount Confirmed A New Star Trek Movie - Again

While it's gratifying that Paramount Skydance, which is in the process of acquiring Warner Brothers Discovery, listed Star Trek among its in-development movie slate at CinemaCon, which includes Tom Cruise returning in Top Gun 3, a new World War Z movie, and more G.I. Joe and Transformers feature films, the lack of any details about the next Star Trek movie is frustrating.

Star Trek Wasted The Last 10 Years & I’m Angry About It

Ten years without a new Star Trek movie, and the cancellation of Star Trek 4, was a complete waste of Chris Pine and his amazing Enterprise cast.

Paramount Skydance didn't even officially confirm Variety's report from last November that Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' filmmakers John Francis Daly and Jonathan Goldsman are developing a new Star Trek movie that will have no links to any prior Star Trek movie or TV series. There are also unconfirmed rumors of more than one Star Trek movie in development.

The ambiguous new Star Trek movie Paramount Skydance confirmed at CinemaCon feels like an empty promise, because the studio did the same just two years ago. At CinemaCon in 2024, Paramount Pictures announced a Star Trek Origin movie directed by Black Mirror's Toby Haynes. There was no mention of Star Trek Origin at 2025's CinemaCon, and the project was dropped, like Star Trek 4, when the Ellisons took over Paramount Global.

The overall direction of the Star Trek movie franchise, as well as the TV division on Paramount+ currently run by Alex Kurtzman (who may be gone by the end of 2026), has also not been addressed. In 2024, X-Men producer Simon Kinberg was reportedly brought aboard to oversee Star Trek movies, but it's unclear if this is still the case, or if there is a visionary for Star Trek's movie franchise in place at all under Paramount Skydance.

The silver lining, however, is that Paramount Skydance is committed to ramping up the studio's film slate, promising 45-day theatrical windows and on-demand availability at home after 90 days. David Ellison, who is a Star Trek fan with a history as an executive producer, understands the value of the Star Trek IP to the studio. Still, Star Trek is just one of many franchises that Paramount Skydance is juggling.

Star Trek Could Repeat What Happened After Enterprise Was Canceled

The fact that there is a new Star Trek movie confirmed to be in development is better news, at least, than the current state of Star Trek TV on Paramount+, which has no new series in production or even greenlit by the studio.

If and when there is new Star Trek content after 2027, when Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's final seasons premiere on Paramount+, it will likely be a new theatrical movie.

Star Trek did release a movie in the last 10 years: Star Trek: Section 31, starring Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh, premiered in January 2025 as the first (and only) Star Trek movie made for streaming on Paramount+. It was not well-received by critics or fans.

What seems to be in the works at Paramount Skydance is a repeat of what happened after 2005. Following the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise, which ended Rick Berman's 18-year tenure as Star Trek's executive producer, both Star Trek movies and television went into hibernation.

The next new Star Trek project that was released was J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot movie in 2009, marking the end of four years without new Star Trek of any sort. Star Trek TV didn't come roaring back for 12 years, when Star Trek: Discovery took the franchise into streaming in 2017 to launch CBS All-Access, which rebranded as Paramount+.

After 2027, and for however long it takes until it happens, the new Star Trek movie that Paramount Skydance announced at CinemaCon will most likely serve as the 'rebirth' of Gene Roddenberry's 60-plus-year-old sci-fi franchise.

Of course, much of this is just speculation and conjecture, which is maddening, since these same hopes and promises of a new Star Trek theatrical movie have been unfulfilled for the last 10 years.

Ultimately, I'll believe there is a new Star Trek movie when I'm sitting in a movie theater watching it.