Star Trek 4 is dead. Again. But this time, the movie that has died multiple deaths might be gone for good.
With this week’s news that Paramount, after a decade of back and forth, has seemingly pulled the plug on reviving the “Kelvin Timeline” that returned Star Trek to the silver screen in J.J Abrams’ 2009 movie, we’re taking a look at the decade-long timeline that the Star Trek movie that couldn’t took to come to this unfortunate end.
2015
The third entry in the rebooted Star Trek film franchise, eventually titled Star Trek Beyond, enters production in June 2015. But before that, Paramount signs stars Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto into extended contracts, covering their return for Star Trek 4.
Months later, in November 2015, shocking news hits: a decade after Star Trek left TV screens with the conclusion of Star Trek: Enterprise, Paramount confirms development has begun on a brand new Star Trek TV series, for its then-nascent streaming platform, CBS All Access (eventually known as Paramount+). Alex Kurtzman, who co-wrote the 2009 Star Trek film as well as its sequel Into Darkness, will produce the series.
© Paramount2016
In May 2016, Paramount begins registering Star Trek 4 with the MPAA, suggesting that plans to continue the series are in place after Star Trek Beyond. Just days before Beyond is meant to release, J.J. Abrams drops a bombshell during publicity: Star Trek 4 isn’t just happening, but will bring back Chris Hemsworth as George Kirk, James Kirk’s father, who perished aboard the U.S.S. Kelvin in the opening events of the 2009 movie. He also confirms shortly after that the fourth film would not recast Pavel Chekov, following the tragic passing of actor Anton Yelchin a month prior.
Star Trek Beyond releases shortly after (it’s pretty solid), and Paramount officially confirms Abrams’ prior comments, delivering Star Trek 4‘s first official logline:
In the next installment of the epic space adventure, Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk will cross paths with a man he never had a chance to meet, but whose legacy has haunted him since the day he was born: his father. Chris Hemsworth, who appeared in 2009’s Star Trek, will return to the space saga as George Kirk to star alongside Pine.
It’s a busy week for Star Trek: back in TV land and at San Diego Comic-Con, Paramount reveals that the new TV series announced the year prior is officially called Star Trek: Discovery, and will be set in Star Trek‘s prime continuity, rather than the Kelvin timeline of the rebooted movies.
2017
No official updates on Star Trek 4 emerge, leading to months of speculation from stars such as Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban, who hope that the movie is actually happening.
In December 2017, it is revealed that Quentin Tarantino pitched a Star Trek film to J.J. Abrams, with work immediately beginning on developing a writer’s room to hash out the script, with an eye for Tarantino to direct. No one is sure if this is Star Trek 4 or if it’s another film set in the Kelvin timeline.
Star Trek: Discovery premieres in September, kicking off a rocky but intriguing debut season.
© Paramount2018
Two years after it was first announced, Chris Hemsworth joins the list of Star Trek 4 stars who have no idea what’s happening with the movie, alongside perpetual “Star Trek stars asked about Star Trek 4 a lot” stalwarts Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban. The general tone of the responses, beyond a lack of clarity, is that people continue to be uncertain if Paramount is developing one Star Trek movie or two, and whether or not that’s actually Tarantino’s project.
Paramount decides to finally clarify, slightly, in April 2018, with an announcement at CinemaCon that the studio is developing two Star Trek films. Without more details, it’s up to trade reporting to confirm shortly that one of those films is indeed Star Trek 4, and that S.J. Clarkson will direct, making her the first female director to helm a Star Trek film. J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay are set to write the script.
The summer of 2018 is largely defined by noncommittal hopes for the film’s future, even with Clarkson attached. Black Panther and Walking Dead star Danai Gurira is rumored for a potential role in the project, and rumors swirl of a potential January 2019 production start.
But issues begin to emerge. It’s first reported in July that Amazon is tapping Payne and McKay to develop their incredibly expensive Lord of the Rings prequel show, and then a month later, The Hollywood Reporter releases a report claiming that Star Trek 4 is on the verge of falling apart, as both Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth attempt to negotiate deals with Paramount they believe the studio is reneging on as it reevaluates the project’s budget in the wake of Star Trek Beyond‘s performance two years prior. It’s unclear if talks could continue, or if Paramount faces the unenviable task of recasting not one, but two of The Hollywood Chrises.
Meanwhile, back in the world of TV, CBS All Access is emboldened by the launch of Discovery. News quickly emerges that Trek legend Patrick Stewart has agreed to return as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in a new series, and the streamer begins making plans to make a lot more Star Trek.
By the end of the year, updates return to the status of uncertainty. But hey, good news! Chris Pine is hopeful and waiting for the call that would bring him back to the captain’s chair, and that has to count for something, right?
2019
Star Trek 4 is seemingly scrapped in January. S.J. Clarkson is tapped to develop a new Game of Thrones prequel spinoff for HBO, an opportunity she can only purportedly take because Star Trek 4 had been shelved by Paramount. The ever-present and ever-vague Quinto offers another noncommittal hope that Star Trek 4 will happen at some point in time.
Meanwhile, Star Trek‘s streaming TV ambitions go from strength to strength. Paramount announces a Michelle Yeoh-led spinoff show based around the secretive black ops organization Section 31, and a new animated comedic spin on the franchise, Lower Decks, emerges. All eyes are on Star Trek: Picard‘s January 2020 premiere, and after a popular launch in Discovery‘s second season, there’s rumor abound of Anson Mount and Ethan Peck helming another new series to reprise their roles as Christopher Pike and the young Spock.
But although the year started poorly for Star Trek 4, it concludes with some hope. Eleven months after it was seemingly dead, it emerges that Star Trek 4 is back on with the assistance of Legion and Fargo helmer Noah Hawley. What is dead for real, though? The Chris Hemsworth return storyline.
© Paramount2020
The Hawley era of Star Trek 4 gets off to an immediately odd start when Hawley seems to suggest that his Star Trek 4 might not necessarily be Star Trek 4 while speaking at a Fargo promotional event in early January, framing it as a “new beginning,” and noting that he was as yet unsure as to who would actually appear in the film.
Simon Pegg takes over as the de facto “Star Trek cast member who has a vague but hopeful wish that Star Trek 4 happens at some point” spokesperson for a while, but even he is largely skeptical that the movie may happen despite Hawley’s involvement.
A little thing called the coronavirus makes its global debut. No one is making much of anything for quite a while, but good news! That new Discovery spinoff based on the crew of the Enterprise, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, becomes official. Plus, Star Trek: Lower Decks debuts, and it’s pretty good. It would seem that Star Trek is, once again, a television franchise.
Noah Hawley eventually confirms that his Star Trek movie is not Star Trek 4, as Kirk is not involved, seemingly now leaving three Star Trek theatrical projects in the air. That doesn’t stop Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine from still hoping, though. Just from a safe social distance.
2021
A Star Trek movie from Discovery writer Kalinda Vazquez is announced, but it’s made clear that it is not Star Trek 4. To make matters even more confusing, shortly after Paramount dates an untitled Star Trek movie for June 9, 2023 that is not Vazquez’s script.
Meanwhile, there is another: WandaVision director Matt Shakman is tapped as the latest director of Star Trek 4, with an eye on production beginning in spring 2022.
© Paramount2022
Weirdly enough, Paramount reannounces Star Trek 4 during a sweeping investors call in February, reaffirming that the original cast will return and production is now set for late 2022 with Shakman directing. As an aside, we also learn that Quentin Tarantino’s now very dead Star Trek project would’ve been incredibly weird if it actually had happened.
Summer comes, and so does Marvel, who now want Shakman for the long-awaited Fantastic Four movie. Star Trek 4 very quickly no longer has a director. Our favorite source of Star Trek 4 updates, Zachary Quinto, starts to suspect that maybe the movie won’t start filming in late 2022 after all.
2023
Michelle Yeoh, now an Academy Award winner, will now star in a Section 31 movie instead of a Section 31 TV show, because at least one side of Star Trek remembers how to make films.
June 9, 2023 passes. No Star Trek movie is released.
© Paramount2024
The start of 2024 comes with a series of surprises: another Star Trek movie is in the works, according to Patrick Stewart, who finds himself seemingly unable to let go of the role of Jean-Luc Picard after Star Trek: Picard‘s third and final season wrapped up in April 2023. Literally days later, a whole other Star Trek film is revealed. From writer Seth Grahame-Smith and director Toby Haynes, the project is described as an “origin story” for Starfleet. For very complicated time travel/alternate universe reasons, no one is really sure if this actually means this film is set in the prime Star Trek continuity or the Kelvin timeline.
In a wide-ranging preview of Star Trek‘s future, it’s noted more movies are planned for the franchise after its years of successful revivals as a TV franchise. It’s mentioned that The Flight Attendant’s Steve Yockey is drafting the latest script for Star Trek 4. Months later in July, Skydance Media confirms that it has acquired Paramount for $8 billion.
2025
Star Trek: Section 31 releases on Paramount+ in January. It turns out that at least one side of Star Trek does not remember how to make films.
By August, Skydance’s takeover of Paramount is officially complete. New CEO David Ellison says that movies and Star Trek are a high priority for his plans to re-establish Paramount as a premiere studio, and this still includes Star Trek 4, with Yockey still attached as a writer. No new director is confirmed.
Which is for the best, with the news on November 4 that Paramount has “moved on” from Star Trek 4. For good? Time will only tell.
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