Paramount Announces ‘Star Trek’ Kelvin Timeline Origin Film Helmed By ‘Andor’ Director, J.J. Abrams’ Fourth Entry Remains MIA
Spencer Baculi
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In adding further confusion to their already obtuse cinematic Starfleet plans, Paramount Pictures has announced that in addition to J.J. Abrams’ supposed fourth entry in the series, the Star Trek franchise will also be receiving an additional ‘origin story’ movie.
News regarding this origin film’s existence was first broken on January 10th via Variety’s Michaela Zee, who herself had reportedly confirmed the news with the outlet’s own insider sources.
Though Paramount is currently keeping tight-lipped when it comes to the film’s plot, according to what little information she could further glean regarding the outing, it will reportedly serves as both “an origin story that is set decades before 2009’s Star Trek,’ as well as an expansion of the Star Trek universe.”
Further, Zee detailed that, in a bit of ‘cross-franchise-pollenation’, the film would be helmed by director Toby Haynes, himself perhaps best known for having directed six of episodes of Disney’s Andor Star War series.
Given this small tease, early speculation suggests that unless the studio chooses to explore an entirely new and unrelated cast of ‘prequel characters’, the film has a good chance of focusing on the early careers of either Captain Kirk’s mentor Captain Christopher Pike, as portrayed by Bruce Greenwood, or his father Lieutenant George Kirk, as portrayed by Chris Hemsworth.
RELATED: ‘Star Trek’ Actor Zachary Quinto Explains Why Fourth Kevlin Timeline Film Is Stuck In Production Hell
Notably, though this entry will serve as a supposed expansion of the director’s ‘Kelvin Timeline’, its announcement comes without any concrete word regarding the status of J.J. Abrams’ previously announced fourth cinematic Star Trek outing, with Zee’s source instead simply informing her that it was still in the works and would serve as the series’ “final chapter”.
First announced as in development in 2016, the film would spend the next six years stuck in various stages of development and going through a hell until, as part of Paramount’s 2022 Global Investors Day presentation, Abrams confirmed that not only was Star Trek 4 actively being worked on, but it would feature the return of the franchise’s entire principle cast.
Bizarrely, this declaration turned out to be far from accurate, as it was later revealed that not only had none of the relevant actors yet agreed to return, but that this was the first time any of them had heard any concrete word regarding the project’s green-lighting.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, an alleged source revealed that “Most, if not all, teams for the franchise’s primary players — who include Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldaña and John Cho — were not aware that an announcement for another film was coming, much less that their clients would be touted as a part of the deal, and certainly not that their clients would be shooting a movie by year’s end.”
To this end, the only member to have ever been publicly noted as having entered negotiations to return was series lead Chris Pine.
However, since this news was first revealed in early 2022, no updates have been given as either his or his fellow castmates’ current outlooks regarding their respective returns.
However, to the surprise of practically no one, in September of that same year, just several months after Abrams had publicly touted its existence, Paramount removed the film from its then-upcoming 2023 release schedule.
And at current, this remains the last official word given by the studio as to Star Trek 4‘s status.
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