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Star Trek 4 Removed From Calendar After Losing WandaVision Director
As the search for a new director continues, Star Trek 4 has been removed from Paramount's release calendar. The movie franchise, better known as the Kelvin Timeline, acted as an origin story for the original sci-fi show, exploring Chris Pine's James T. Kirk as he rises through the ranks of Federation, all in the honor of his late father, Chris Hemsworth's George Kirk. The Star Trek reboot movies have also explored the early careers of Zachary Quinto's Spock, Zoë Saldaņa's Uhura, Karl Urban's Bones McCoy, Simon Pegg's Scotty and John Cho's Sulu.
Development on a fourth installment in J.J. Abrams' Kelvin timeline has been in the works since 2016's Star Trek Beyond, with a number of directors and writers coming and going from the project. The film's elongated development even saw Paramount begin eyeing other potential projects set in the franchise, including a Quentin Tarantino-penned Star Trek movie set apart from the main USS Enterprise crew. Though it started to gain steam over the past year with WandaVision's Matt Shakman signing on to direct, a recent setback seems to have ruined the movie's chances once again.
Variety has brought word that Paramount has removed Star Trek 4 from its release calendar. The decision comes just a month after Matt Shakman, best known for helming all nine episodes of Marvel's WandaVision series, departed the project in exchange for tackling the Marvel Cinematic Universe-set Fantastic Four reboot instead. Sources report Paramount's struggle to find a new director and the ticking timeline on the cast's contracts were major factors on the decision to remove Star Trek 4, which was slated for a December 22, 2023 release, from the calendar.
Will Star Trek 4 Ever Happen?
The writing seemed to be on the wall for Star Trek 4 to be removed from the Paramount release calendar following Shakman's exit as director on the project. Comments made by Pine and Urban earlier this year praised Shakman and saw them express their excitement to return, though both actors noted that they had yet to see a script for the long-awaited Star Trek sequel, a concerning piece of information given the film was slated for a December 2023 release date. Paramount boss Brian Robbins seemed confident this past June in Star Trek 4's filming chances, though given Shakman left for Fantastic Four two months later, it's understandable he may have believed it could finally get off the ground.
With the film now being pulled from the Paramount release calendar, the question now becomes whether Star Trek 4 will ever happen. As the new report indicates, one of the biggest factors into pulling the long-awaited sequel was the struggle to keep its busy ensemble roster of actors on contract for the film without a planned start date, a sentiment echoed by Simon Pegg this past summer. While Kelvin Timeline fans await for a positive turn of events on the Star Trek 4, they can revisit Abrams' first two movies streaming on Paramount+ now.
