Although the original announcement came as a surprise to the cast, it seems that Paramount Pictures is finally set to reunite the NuTrek crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise for the long-rumoured Star Trek 4.
Under J.J. Abrams, the Trek franchise reinvented itself back in 2009 with a big screen reboot led by Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk. And, while the three NuTrek films boldly went where no Trek movie had gone before in terms of box office – with grosses of $387 million (Star Trek), $467 million (Star Trek Into Darkness) and $336 (Star Trek Beyond) – ever-increasing blockbuster-sized budgets meant that 2016’s Beyond actually ended up losing around $50 million from its theatrical run.
Beyond’s performance threw Paramount’s plans for the already-announced Star Trek 4 into disarray, and six years and various iterations later (including takes from S.J. Clarkson, Quentin Tarantino and Noah Hawley), it seems we’re finally set to go under WandaVision director Matt Shakman. And, speaking to Deadline, Chris Pine has provided an update on the sequel’s current status, as well as discussing where he thinks the franchise has been going wrong.
“I’ve not read a script [for the next movie yet],” said Pine. “I met the director, Matt, who I really like. I met a producer on it that I really like. I know JJ is involved in it in some respects. I met the new people over at Paramount, which is many different kind of relations. I really liked them. Everybody seems excited about the prospect of it. There’s just simply no — I don’t have a tangible script to look at.”
“We always tried to get the huge international market,” Pine continued, reflecting on the previous three movies. “It was always about making the billion dollars. It was always this billion-dollar mark because Marvel was making a billion. Billion, billion, billion. We struggled with it because Star Trek, for whatever reason, its core audience is rabid. Like rabid, as you know. To get these people that are interested that maybe are Star Wars fans or think Star Trek is not cool or whatever, proven to be… we’ve definitely done a good job of it but not the billion-dollar kind of job that they want.
“I’ve always thought that Star Trek should operate in the zone that is smaller. You know, it’s not a Marvel appeal. It’s like, let’s make the movie for the people that love this group of people, that love this story, that love Star Trek. Let’s make it for them and then, if people want to come to the party, great. But make it for a price and make it, so that if it makes a half-billion dollars, that’s really good.”
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It’s unlikely there’ll be too many Star Trek fans out there who disagree with Pine’s opinion, and hopefully it’s something that Paramount and Bad Robot have taken into account for this next upcoming entry in the iconic sci-fi franchise.
