The U.S.S. Enterprise has been stuck in deep space for too long with comms off – it’s about time for the Star Trek franchise to reel us back in. Five years following the release of Star Trek Beyond, Paramount is reportedly finally moving forward with a new Star Trek movie, and the studio has found a director in WandaVision's Matt Shakman.
Paramount and J.J. Abrams’ own Bad Robot, the companies behind the trilogy of Star Trek films starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, are moving forward with a mysterious movie from the universe. Matt Shakman will be the director of the next space epic as he comes off helming all nine WandaVision episodes, per Deadline. The movie’s script has reportedly been written by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson.
Lindsey Beer wrote Sierra Burgess Is a Loser for Netflix and Geneva Robertson was behind 2018’s Tomb Raider and Captain Marvel. The pair have also been attached to writing the Silver Sable movie for Sony’s Spider-Verse. Beer is also tapped to direct the upcoming Pet Sematary movie for Paramount+ as well. The news of Matt Shakman taking on Star Trek comes the same day it was announced that WandaVision is up for 23 Emmy nominations this year.
Following years of development hell for the Star Trek movies, it’s unclear what this Star Trek project will look like. We don’t know yet if the movie will be a continuation of the franchise that started in 2009 about Captain Kirk and his crew, or a complete reimagining of the beloved science fiction franchise. Since Star Trek Beyond was released, a number of scripts have been on the table and then fallen through.
At one point, Chris Pine’s Kirk was going to reunite with Kirk’s father, played briefly by Chris Hemsworth in the 2009 movie, in a time travel tale. However, pay negotiations between Pine and Hemsworth reportedly led to the project being placed on pause. Additionally, Fargo’s Noah Hawley was attached to a Star Trek movie, and Quentin Tarantino even shared interest in adapting a script by The Revenant‘s Mark L. Smith said to be like “Pulp Fiction in space.”
Matt Shakman’s Star Trek movie is not the only one from the franchise in the works over at Paramount. Back in March, it was also announced that Star Trek: Discovery writer Kalinda Vazquez is writing an “original” Star Trek movie that she pitched to the studio. It was also announced in April that a Star Trek movie will be coming to theaters on June 9, 2023, but we don’t know if its Kalinda Vazquez’s project or Matt Shakman’s.
From what we know, our best guess is that we’ll see Shakman’s first considering the report also hints at his Star Trek movie being fast-tracked and moving into production next spring. If the WandaVision filmmaker shoots the next Star Trek movie in early 2022, it could most definitely be ready to compete with Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Furiosa in summer 2023.
It’s exciting to hear Paramount is putting the franchise back on course, but we’re still in the dark here. What Star Trek movie are we amping up for, Paramount? Stay tuned for those answers.
