Its been a few weeks since our last major update about Chris Pine’s fate as Captain Kirk in the Star Trek franchise. The actor has been embroiled in a salary dispute with Paramount which so far has left the project up in the air. Both he and Chris Hemsworth haven’t signed on to the fourth installment of the Kelvin timeline Star Trek films.
The Wonder Woman: 1984 star recently spoke to Variety on the red carpet at the Toronto Film Festival while promoting his film Outlaw King. He gave an update on where he stands on the film.
Would Chris Pine be interested in being a part of #StarTrek 4? #TIFF18 pic.twitter.com/4s3nxMCbtZ
— Variety (@Variety) September 7, 2018
Pine states, “I’d love to be involved, and we’ll see what happens. I’ll await the phone call. Until then, I look forward to it.”
It’s a rather vague answer and doesn’t give any details on whether or not the two parties have made any headway. But it’s also an answer you would expect given he is involved in a salary dispute and would not want to show his hand.
However, the answer didn’t give me warm fuzzies about Pine returning as it doesn’t appear he’s even communicating with Paramount over the salary dispute when he states, “I’ll await the phone call.” It does appear he wants to return to the franchise.
While the fourth installment of Star Trek is currently in limbo with both Pine and Hemsworth walking away from the project, it was expected to see Hemsworth return to his role as George Kirk. Hemsworth played Pine’s father in the first film of the Kelvin timeline where he sacrificed himself to preserve his crew after time-traveling Romulans attacked the USS Kelvin.
With George’s death, the young James T. Kirk was left without an important keystone to his development that played a major role in the Prime Universes’s James T. Kirk.
With the new of Hemsworth reprising his role as George Kirk, there’s been quite a bit of speculation that time travel would once again be used. As fans of Star Trek know, time travel is one of the favorite forms of travel used by the many crews of the Enterprise aside from their warp drive.
Fellow actor Karl Urban who plays Leonard “Bones” McCoy has made it clear that he is ready for the next chapter. But he recognizes that there are still steps to take before it happens. In an interview during Trekonderoga, the star discussed where the franchise stands:
“Hopefully, we get back for another movie or two of them. We’ are just sort of waiting on negotiations. I’m confident we will.”
Urban explained in greater detail what the hold up was and pointed at the success of his co-stars:
“[Star Trek Beyond] did pretty well… But still, for a movie that cost what it cost to make, the profit margins aren’t that great and so particularly Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pine subsequently have done big movies, and their quotes have gone up. And so I am pretty confident though that Paramount and those guys, they will figure it out. Because I know Chris. We were all in touch recently and everybody wants to do it and make it happen. So, if Paramount is willing, there will be a way to make it happen. So, fingers crossed.”
What do you think, is Star Trek 4 going to happen? Or will the JJ-Verse see its end before a fourth film? Tell me what you think in the comments below!