Simon Pegg On Star Trek: “We’ve Lost Momentum”

John F. Trent |

Mar 1, 2020

Star Trek actor Simon Pegg, who plays Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the J.J. Abrams produced Star Trek films, provided an update on the future of the film franchise.

In a wide-ranging interview with Games Radar, Pegg provided an update on the future of Star Trek films as well as a little bit of a post-mortem on the previous films.

When asked what the latest was on a possible sequel to Star Trek Beyond, Pegg answered:

“I don’t know. The fact is, Star Trek movies don’t make Marvel money. They make maybe $500m at the most, and to make one now, on the scale they’ve set themselves, is $200m. You have to make three times that to make a profit.”

Star Trek Beyond only grossed $335.8 million worldwide with a production budget of $185 million. The-Numbers reports the worldwide gross only made 1.8 times its production budget.

In fact, none of the Star Trek films makes 3 times its production budget. The first Star Trek film grossed $386.8 million worldwide with a $140 million production budget. The worldwide gross was 2.8 times the production budget.

Star Trek Into Darkness’s worldwide gross was $467.3 million off a $190 million production budget. Its worldwide box office was 2.5 times the production budget.

Pegg then detailed some of the problems Star Trek Beyond had with its marketing:

“I don’t feel like the last one… They didn’t really take advantage of the 50th anniversary. The regimen at the time dropped the ball on the promo of the film.”

Pegg continued:

“And we’ve lost momentum. I think losing Anton [Yelchin] was a huge blow to our little family, and our enthusiasm to do another one might have been affected by that. So I don’t know.”

Pegg’s update on the future of Star Trek films echoes what he said back in December 2019.

Speaking with Golden Derby, Pegg explained he didn’t know anything about a Star Trek sequel following Star Trek Beyond.

“No, I don’t know anything about it. I think Noah Hawley’s been hired to write something for Star Trek, which is very exciting because he’s a brilliant writer and always creates interesting stuff.”

Pegg even indicated that he didn’t think the current cast of Star Trek would even be involved in the rumored Hawley project. Pegg stated, “Whether or not we are involved in that, I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

Following Star Trek Beyond, both Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth were reported to have dropped out of the film due to a dispute with their pay. That report also indicated that Paramount was attempting to stick to a budget due to Star Trek Beyond’s meager $343 million worldwide gross compared to its production budget.

What do you make of Pegg’s comments? Do you think this bodes well for the future of Star Trek?