Star Trek 4 Rumored To Be Cancelled, No More Movies In Development [UPDATED]
UPDATE: Paramount says this is not true and Star Trek movies are still in development. The original article follows.
Star Trek 4 is rumored to be cancelled, with no more movies in development. After establishing its place in pop culture as a television show in the 1960s, Star Trek made the leap to the big screen with the 1979 movie Star Trek: The Motion Picture. That initial foray into cinema would be followed by numerous sequels, until the original Star Trek cast gave way to the TNG generation for another series of films.
Of course, the TNG movie run itself eventually came to an end, with Star Trek: Nemesis as the final film. Then in 2009, J.J. Abrams brought Trek back to screens with his reboot movie starring a new cast as the original Enterprise crew. Abrams would direct the sequel Star Trek: Into Darkness, but would step aside in favor of Justin Lin for the third filmStar Trek: Beyond. But after Beyond underperformed at the box office, the future of Trek became very much in doubt, with reports flying about Quentin Tarantino possibly developing his own Trek film. Later, it was announced that Fargo creator Noah Hawley would take up the cause of keeping Trek alive on screen with a project that was later revealed to be an entirely new endeavor with a whole new cast.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowHowever, it now seems hopes of another Star Trek big screen reboot have themselves gone by the wayside. The website Giant Freaking Robot, which first broke news of the new Trek series Strange New Worlds, now says Paramount has nixed Hawley’s Trek and indeed will no longer be in the business of making Trek movies. The site's source says Paramount has decided to focus on Star Trek TV properties, though if one of those TV shows were to break out in popularity, the studio could consider spinning it into a movie. Of course, until anything is confirmed this news remains in the rumor category and should be taken with a grain of salt. It's also worth mentioning that Star Trek 4 was already reportedly cancelled once only to be taken out of mothballs and put back into the pipeline.
Obviously, the TV side of the Trek universe is currently very healthy at least in terms of quantity, with CBS All Access (soon to be rebranded as Paramount+) filling its schedule with the shows Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Lower Decks, with plans for the Pike/Spock series Strange New Worlds as well as a show built around the mysterious Section 31 organization also in the works.
If indeed reports are true that Paramount has decided to stop work on all Trek films, this represents a major disappointment for fans of the franchise who were looking forward to seeing what might be next for Trek on the big screen. However, given the soft box office for Star Trek: Beyond, it would really not be a shock to see the studio bring the movie franchise to an end at least for the time being. Star Trek is indeed doing very well as a TV property and it doubtless makes more financial sense to pump money into expanding that side of the universe instead of gambling on Star Trek 4 at a time when audiences are increasingly disinterested in supporting older franchises as the box office. Clearly, the new realities imposed by coronavirus have added a new wrinkle to studio thinking on future movie projects as well. With any luck, things will change in the future and Trek will again become a viable big screen brand, but for now its seems the venerable Star Trek movie universe is dead in space.
Source: Giant Freaking Robot
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Source: screenrant.com