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Tarantino’s Star Trek Movie Reportedly Not Set in Kelvin Timeline
Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek movie, if it ever comes to pass, will reportedly not take place in the so-called Kelvin timeline. After seeming to have gone into hibernation in the wake of poor box office returns for Star Trek Beyond, suddenly the Star Trek brand is showing signs of life. Several developments have come to light in just the last few days that raise hopes Trek will continue being part of the movie landscape for years to come.
At this week’s CinemaCon, Paramount confirmed they are in fact developing not one but two new Star Trek movies. According to reports, one of the two is Star Trek 4, a continuation of the reboot series begun by J.J. Abrams in 2009. Paramount reportedly has been talking to Jessica Jones pilot director S.J. Clarkson about directing the film, which would make her the first female director in Trek movie history. Star Trek 4 has a script by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay that reportedly involves time travel and brings back Chris Hemsworth’s George Kirk.
And then there’s that other Trek movie coming from Quentin Tarantino. As reported by THR, Tarantino Trek is still going ahead, with Tarantino set to direct (despite Simon Pegg’s recent statement that he doubts Tarantino would actually take the helm). But unlike Star Trek 4 – and the previous three Trek movies since the reboot – Tarantino’s Trek will not take place in the so-called Kelvin timeline. Essentially, Tarantino is developing his own standalone Trek movie that’s completely free and clear of any obligation to address the main Trek series currently on-going.
As Trek fans know, the Kelvin timeline is so-called because of events taking place in Abrams’ 2009 Trek. The timeline takes its name from the ship, the USS Kelvin commanded by James Kirk’s father George (Chris Hemsworth), destroyed by time-traveling Romulans in the opening scenes of that movie. Later in the film, the same Romulans also destroyed the planet Vulcan, leaving Spock without a home planet. These events established an entire new timeline that, besides giving Trek fans reason to gripe, also freed up Abrams to do anything he wanted with subsequent movies without having to worry about messing up the Trek history already established in prior TV series and films.
As for Tarantino’s script, nobody knows anything except that Revenant writer Mark L. Smith has been hired to write it. The only hint we have about possible plot comes from old Tarantino interviews where he talked about wanting to do a feature film version of a classic Trek episode from either The Original Series or The Next Generation. Both Patrick Stewart and William Shatner have expressed interest in hopping aboard should Tarantino get to make his Star Trek movie. Tarantino’s Trek would of course have to wait until after he’s done making Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, his 1969-set movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.
