The next movie in the rebooted big-screen Star Trek franchise – rumored to be called Star Trek Beyond but for now known as Star Trek 3 – has seen a number of pre-production shake-ups. Original director Roberto Orci was swapped out for Fast & Furious helmer Justin Lin. There’s less than a month to go before filming starts, though co-screenwriter/costar Simon Pegg has reported that a revised script draft has been completed.

The movie remains set to arrive in theaters to coincide with the franchise’s 50th anniversary. The new Star Trek films (with their rebooted timeline) have given the brand a new luster and broader audience appeal, but they seem to have derailed plans to return the franchise to its television roots. A rumor from back in March suggested that CBS might be developing a new Trek series, but we’ve had no hard details since.

Star Trek: The Next Generation alumnus Michael Dorn – who played the fan-favorite Klingon Starfleet officer Worf – has been attempting to launch a TV series project known as Star Trek: Captain Worf for some time now. We first heard about Dorn’s desire to return to his signature character back in 2012, in fact. The project is still far from being greenlit, but Dorn has been sharing details about his proposed show in a series of interviews with The Cinema Source (hat tip to Blackfilm). You can watch the latest one, above.

It appears that Captain Worf is a concept that has not been dismissed outright by CBS, which owns the television rights to the franchise. Dorn’s ongoing video interviews with The Cinema Source have yielded one particularly interesting update: just where the series fits within the now-convoluted franchise timeline. According to Dorn, Captain Worf would take place after the events of the TNG spinoff series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and before the final film starring the TNG cast, Star Trek: Nemesis.

Dorn’s also hinted that Worf would have a new love interest (someone Klingon) in Captain Worf. However, the eponymous character would have no clear allegiance to either his people or Starfleet, having moved into a new phase of his life. Dorn’s proposed series would also see a very different Klingon society, with humans and Starfleet officers having been integrated into daily life on the Klingon homeworld.

star trek captain worf michael dorn Star Trek: Michael Dorn Still Pushing for Captain Worf TV Show


Dorn as Worf has played a larger role in the Star Trek TV shows than any other regular cast member; while his story received many different arcs on The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, the character’s presence in the TNG films was mostly insubstantial. Worf was always one of the most interesting Star Trek characters, but could Dorn’s approach really get the green-light it needs in the current climate – a time when Paramount is demanding a less “Star Trek-y” movie, for example?

Many Trekkies still believe that the Star Trek universe’s rich history and background is best served in a serial/episodic format. Dorn’s notion of keeping his Captain Worf timeline completely separate from the new films’ continuity – which in theory erase that of The Next Generation – might actually be a way for everyone involved to get what they want.

After all, something like the “multiverse” approach to DC’s various comic book TV shows – separate from the burgeoning DCMU – has set a successful precedent for such a different, but similar in function, approach to Star Trek. Would you agree?

Star Trek: Captain Worf has not been green-lit. We’ll let you know if that changes.