John Cho: Reuniting New Cast For Fourth Star Trek Will Be ‘Tough’

chosulu

The third movie for the new Star Trek crew is currently gearing up for a 2016, but what happens next? The cast has all signed up for three movies, so will they return for a fourth or more? The new Sulu, John Cho addresses this issue in a new interview.

John Cho: Reuniting Cast For Fourth Star Trek Will Be ‘Tough’

In an interview with Crave promoting his new ABC sitcom Selfie, the subject of the future of Star Trek came up for actor John Cho. Here is the exchange:

Zachary Quinto has said the Star Trek cast all signed up for three movies, so the next one is the end of the contract. Since those characters go on forever, do you really expect this to be the last one for your team, or for you as Sulu?

The reason I hesitate is just wondering if we could get everyone. It seems to be an all or nothing proposition. I want to say, for me, sure, let’s do another. I enjoy that group. I enjoy what Star Trek films do in general and say in general. And I will say one of the pleasures of having been in Star Trek movies has been seeing what effect they have in society, like astronauts saying, “I kind of got into this line of work because my imagination was sparked from watching ‘Star Trek.’” That is very cool. What I’m trying to say is, I just stand by that product. Getting a whole cast together, that’s tough.

I understand, if one of the cast is unavailable, there’s no point having most of you and recasting one role.

I would have to think about that. I guess you’d have to see when you got there, but I would like to keep it all together.

st09cast
"Star Trek" director JJ Abrams with his cast – can they be reunited for a fourth Trek?

Most Fans Agree

In a recent poll here at TrekMovie, most fans agreed that the crew will not all be reuniting for fourth Star Trek film after 2016. (if you haven’t yet voted you still can below).

POLL

[poll id=”733″]

 

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“Reuniting the cast for a fourth movie will be tough, because I really hate Chris Pine….”

Oh wait, wrong Sulu….

It’s not clear to me why it would be so tough. They are all having successful careers, and perhaps they want to avoid typecasting, but it’s not like any of them other than the Uhura actress get a lot of other roles.

Pine will do will with whatever he chooses, and perhaps he has the most to lose by the typecasting.

Won’t happen…Zoe’s schedule and price tag going forward alone make it an impossibility. 2007/8 these were actors on the cheap and hungry for work…now not so much. Shoulda locked them in on a 6 film deal like Marvel usually does.

I just want Star Trek back on TV.

I find it bizarre that so many people are expecting no further Trek films for five or more years. There’s no way that will be the outcome. Trek is making CBS/Paramount too much money. These films have been very successful.

Wrap it up as a trilogy then consider a new TV Series.

Personally, I don’t care about the casting. Actors are actors. I would actually be much more excited by a new cable TV series with an appropriate budget. New premise. New characters. Various character-centric stories.

Wait a second here, how are we, as fans, privy to what will happen wrt the cast for a fourth ST film? We’re not the castmembers or the execs at Paramount. I just don’t see any point to this poll.

I imagine if there is any interest in doing a fourth film that Paramount will have to re-negotiate contracts with the castmembers, like with any other franchise. If some are unavailable, maybe they will recast those roles. That said, I think some of the recasts wouldn’t work, i.e. Pine, Quinto, and maybe Urban and Zoe Saldana (considering how Uhura is a much more important character in the new films than she was in the original series and films).

From what I read, I wouldn’t be surprised if both Quinto and Pine would want to move on after the third film, maybe other members of the cast as well. But, then again, money is a great persuader, so who knows. We, as fans, certainly don’t. All we can do is speculate.

@3

How about a Captain Sulu series finally, but with this John Cho?

We aren’t privy to anything – we are speculating. It’s public knowledge that Quinto could take it or leave it, and Zoe has two other franchises that appear to have much more aggressive development schedules then what CBS/Paramount seem interested in doing with Trek. Personally, I understand that, in a command structure, crew members rotate in and out of a ship all the time, so if Sulu or Uhura were on assignment, the audience would understand that. Roles get recast all the time – Ben Affleck is Batman now. Daniel Craig is James Bond. The world doesn’t end if some of these characters are recast.

I’m sure it will also depend on how the next film fares at the box office. If it’s a runaway hit, then Paramount will be more inclined to make appearing in another film more attractive to the cast (via either more money or creative perks). If its a moderate hit like ST:ID then they’ll probably rethink the franchise and take some time to decide where they want to take it next.

I suspect they will make another film with all of them. Making a film doesn’t take soooo long. It is not like a series. And most of the cast members aren’t offered roles on big Hollywood cinema movies all the time. So why say “no” to a nice pay check and a lot of publicity? Even those who are busy, should be able to find some time for this movie.

But personally rather than another movie, I wish they would recast the whole lot and make a new Star Trek series based on the new movie universe with Kirk, Spock and Co. Most of the current cast would probably not be willing to be part of a series, that is why I said recasting them all. I just want another Star Trek series and not a mere movie every few years. A series would be way better!

Paramount was stupid years ago for never really considering a series following Sulu on the Excelsior. They have a shot now with a quality actor (at least as good as Takei) willing to do either TV or movies. Even with Sulu and Amy Pond, I’d be shocked to see ‘Selfie’ make it more than a couple of seasons. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it die after 13 episodes. Cho will have time to do one more doomed series, then wrap up the third movie and let the studios build an Excelsior crew around him. Do it either on TV or in movies. I don’t care. I just want to see it.

…as in: once my contract is up, i’m DONE with this POS =P

Herbert
warning for spamming. We get it. You don’t need to post over and over how much you don’t like the new movies

@9. Mad Mann – October 2, 2014
Or Sulu’s Daughter!

@10. Phil – October 2, 2014
Exactly.

I also LOVE Star Trek (in general)… =)

…but (specifically) HATE nu-trek =(

RE-BOOT NOW!!! =D

I actually love the current actors in these roles but would expect them all to return. So slight recasting would be expected.

It’s the writers and directprs I can’t stomach. They simply suck and wish they wouldn’t return.

John Cho deserves better! (go back to being Harold) ;-)

Frankly, all the need are Pine, Quinto and Urban. They can do without any of the rest of them. I love the characters, but history has painted Uhura, Sulu, Scotty and Chekov into being bigger than they actually were. I actually think the films would be better without the ridiculous Spock/Uhura love affair.

Please go your separate ways after this next movie, lovely actors!

Three is a fine number. Let’s not spoil a mediocre, unsatisfying thing.

“And I will say one of the pleasures of having been in Star Trek movies has been seeing what effect they have in society, like astronauts saying, “I kind of got into this line of work because my imagination was sparked from watching ‘Star Trek.’” – John Cho

This is why I love actors. They’re by far the best salesmen and promoters of the product.

However, BR Trek’s motto of This isn’t your father’s Star Trek applies equally to its attitude about science. More than anything else, the BR movies seem to be making the statement that you can make a nominally “sci-fi” movie with little or no regard to actual science. Don’t expect a wave of physicists entering the field in 10 years, having been inspired by red matter, supernovae that threaten our entire galaxy, and a magical space suit that’s more resistant to heat than a whole star ship.

I dont see it as that tough. Zoe is the big star but Trek is a big budget production and can afford it.

The one stumbling block is most of these guys will get more to reprise their roles in Trek then they might for another project because of the leverage they have.

But if it comes down to all of them wanting to do it, it can be done.

There were rumours that Pine (and maybe Quinto) were quietly signed for a fourth film. None of these guys are iconic in the roles at this stage so any one of them could be re-cast.

My preference would be a break from films and move into TV. In fact, they are crazy if they arent knee-deep in some TV plans to coincide with the 50th Anniversary. Get to about season 3-4 and look at translating the TV vision to the big screen.

One issue for Orci is to be cognizant of this possibly being the last film with this cast and film makers while not closing the door for a 4th.

Yes, astronauts are coming up to this cast and telling them how thier Star Trek inspired them to get into space and such. Right.

I will be glad if this is the last one they do. Interesting experiment but the facts are this didn’t reinvent Trek like they hoped. When you adjust for inflation, these films are not making a ton of money compared to the old ones and return on investment is very low since these films have such a large budget. This was the Hollywood version of Star Trek and once this is over, maybe they will get someone who actually understands it and start doing it properly again.

Honestly, I think Trek will be over for a long time if this “experiment ” really does fail.

I think after the next one, this cast will move on and either the movies move forward with other characters or Trek goes back to TV.

If they can’t sign Zoe, they can find that other communications officer with the gold tunic. Then they could do “The Doomsday Machine.”

It will only be tough if they want too much money as apart from Pine the rest of the cast get very little for Trek according to Pines ex-agent. So if they want to do another it will depend on those negotiations & ST3 box office which needs to go way beyond $500m for Paramount to take the risk again. I think ST3 is happening more because of the 50th anniversary cross marketing opportunity to resell Trek Blurays/DVD’s than STID box office performance somehow…..

at this point I just hope the third movie goes well and perhaps paramount&co might consider at least a fourth. If not, 3 is a good number and I really only care about the third movie going well and giving closure to these characters in some hopeful way.

as for the cast returning, well why not? Getting roles in a big franchise is good for an actor. Sure, they want to do other stuff too but it’s nice to have constant visibility thank to a big franchise.
IDK but I think that some actors would kill to get one of the main roles in a big mainstream franchise.

also, neither of them is really a big star so far. No one won an oscar (not that it would mean that much, ask DiCaprio) Yes, not even Zoe who might be the biggest star of them all (with 3 franchises!) but she still is a woman and a woman of color in hollywood (IMO she doesn’t get that much recognition compared to other actresses that get it for much much less)
I think the status of ‘star’ has chanced in the last years for the actors of our generation compared to old ones. Nowadays actors struggle keep their A list status and many, even oscar winners, are getting back to television.

Besides Zoe Saldana none has another big thing in the business, this is quite evident. And as far as I know none of them ruled out the possibility of an upcoming movie after Star Trek 3, not even John Cho what he’s saying in the interview.

If Star Trek 3 is a success, there will probably be a lot of talk about an upcoming movie with the same cast, in this case I doubt anyone is not willing to hear a good proposal.

I feel like i’m the only one who doesn’t want a new TV show.

Voyager and Enterprise were mostly average and just retelling of stories that TNG did

I think it’s more about money than availability, but either way, I could really care less if any of this crew were re-cast. They haven’t been around nearly long enough to really endear themselves (to me, at least), and their stories *so far* have been batting .500 (again, to me). I don’t believe, with the possible exception of Karl Urban, these actors have done anything to make our favorite Trek characters more iconic.

Here’s to hoping this next film really makes good use of them, then move on to whatever (tv or movies) is next.

Even if they can get all the cast back, I think they should just stick with a trilogy for the new cast, and then have Star Trek do something completely different (preferably a TV show) in a few years.

#13 wrote:
“Paramount was stupid years ago for never really considering a series following Sulu on the Excelsior.”

No, it wasn’t. A series starring George Takei and Janice Rand–the two worst actors in the original cast? No THANK you. It would have tanked.

Ask the actors whether they’re gonna return for the 4th movie. If they refuse, make their character go away in the 3rd. He got promoted, she got killed, him decided to quit Starfleet. HQ sends replacement officers, problem solved.

This is a different universe to the classic series, after all: having some engaging, interesting characters is more important than having all those familiar character names together. Why couldn’t Spock quit Starfleet, why couldn’t McCoy die? Hell, why couldn’t *Kirk* die? Everybody can die, that’s how stuff works.

The linchpin is Chris Pine, I would think.

Quinto? He does some other things, but this would seem to be an easy big paycheck for him to pull down. Urban? Big trek fan, and big De Kelley fan – can’t see him wanting to stay out. Pegg? This is the one big mainstream thing for him, why would he not want to continue?
Cho says he would return.
So the question is whether they will pay Pine enough for him to come back. I think they would – within reason.

Of course that doesn’t mention Saldana or Yelchin. Saldana would be a loss, but could it continue without her? Definately.
Yelchin the same thing, but it wouldn’t be as much of a loss.

Quite frankly – How much sense does it make for a ship filled with Commanders and Captains all over age 40 or 50? It made no sense that Riker never got his own ship for 15 years, and in TOS, it was even more ridiculous that they went 30 years with essentially the same crew more or less until Sulu got the Excelsior in VI. Although at least in TOS movies – they sort of explained it that Kirk was no longer captain a couple times and that Spock and much of the crew were training cadets.

Frankly, all the need are Pine, Quinto and Urban. They can do without any of the rest of them. I love the characters, but history has painted Uhura, Sulu, Scotty and Chekov into being bigger than they actually were. I actually think the films would be better without the ridiculous Spock/Uhura love affair.
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Your Kidding.

So much non-sense from some of the users on this board. All we need are pine, Quinto and Urban? really? what a ridiculous statement.

Maybe this is why star wars will always be more popular. with star wars is not about the 3 white male leads. the women and other characters of color or ethnicity matter and will matter with Episode 7.

the spock/uhura romance makes more sense and is more believable than all the slash fan fics of kirk/spock or kirk/mccoy that girls tend to write to get turned on.

this is not the 60s anymore where all the characters on screen are white men. Please check your calender.

Frankly, all the need are Pine, Quinto and Urban. They can do without any of the rest of them. I love the characters, but history has painted Uhura, Sulu, Scotty and Chekov into being bigger than they actually were. I actually think the films would be better without the ridiculous Spock/Uhura love affair.
———————————————————————–

I do not think all we need are pine, Quinto and Urban? that is just ignorance.

Maybe this is why star wars will always be more popular. with star wars is not about the 3 white male leads. the women and other characters of color or ethnicity matter and will matter with Episode 7.

lastly the spock/uhura romance makes more sense and is more believable than all the slash fan fics of kirk/spock or kirk/mccoy that a loud minority of girls tend to write.

Please this is not the 1960s anymore where all the characters on screen are white men by default

The cast isn’t exactly burning up the box-office in other ventures. And they seem to genuinely enjoy each other’s company. Unless they simply tire of the roles, which is unlikely, I see no reason they cant all reunite every couple years or so and crank out a good movie and pocket some serious coin…while a new series with a new continues to explore the new universe on TV.

In fact, presenting an opportunity for these actors to really dig into their characters, in depth, on television, may not be so far fetched. It’s steady work, quality work, and lets you put down some roots. You never know!

#37 “Please this is not the 1960s anymore where all the characters on screen are white men by default”

No, it’s not, but Star Trek is based on Star Trek, and the blueprint for the series and it’s characters was drawn up in the 60’s. You don’t just change it because you don’t like it. If you’re baking me an apple pie, by God, it better have apples in it. You don’t substitute oranges for the apples just because Granny used a wood burning stove and you like oranges better.

My gut tells me that the next Trek movie will be the last with this cast. For me, the movies are just a diversion, anyway. Trek was born on TV and thrives there. As much as I enjoy cinematic Trek it pales in comparison with the wealth and quality of the stories told in all the series (Yes, ALL, including Voyager, which I have been re-watching all of the eps in order. That show was much maligned and misunderstood).

My heart won’t be broken if after the next film there is no more of the AU and TOS. My heart tells me that Trek isn’t about going backwards and taking trips down memory lane or about nostalgia or about trying to capture former glory. I enjoy it more when it is using science fiction as a base for telling stories that are relevant to the times we live in.

39. star trackie – October 2, 2014
#37 “Please this is not the 1960s anymore where all the characters on screen are white men by default”

No, it’s not, but Star Trek is based on Star Trek, and the blueprint for the series and it’s characters was drawn up in the 60′s. You don’t just change it because you don’t like it. If you’re baking me an apple pie, by God, it better have apples in it. You don’t substitute oranges for the apples just because Granny used a wood burning stove and you like oranges better.

***************************************

I think what Tim is saying is that you don’t have to have the “troika” anymore. If a person is unavailable to reprise a role, you can take other characters and plug them into the holes, so long as you make them interesting.

Say Urban doesn’t come back? There’s already been discussion at how Uhura, who is much more interesting and grabs more screen time than Prime Uhura (and arguably the biggest star among the actors) is a member of a new Kirk/Spock/Uhura troika. And that’s totally fine. That doesn’t make it any less Star Trek.

I agree that all the *need* is Urban, Pine and Quinto. And ofcourse that has nothing to do with them being white males. Give me a break. I dont think anyone is advocating firing the other cast members but if they cannot come to an agreement, then so be it.

To the person who mentioned the weirdness of all these decorated officers serving together for so long, that always bother me to a degree. But in TMP, it made sense. Kirk was an Admiral and “took back” command. Spock and Bones werent even in Starfleet. Scotty was over-seeing the re-fit of the Enterprise.

In WoK, again, Kirk was Admiral. Spock was Captain of the Enterprise. I could buy Spock holding a teaching position but it was strange to see the others all goofing around Starfleet. If they were all so legendary wouldnt Starfleet had given them all their own ships? At least Chekov was first officer on a different ship so he had some career aspirations. Probably would have made more sense if that ship had Sulu as Captain and Chekov as First Officer at least.

III & IV made sense since none of them were actually assigned to the Enterprise or serving Starfleet. Then we’re back to the weirdness of them all serving together on regular duty in Trek V. In VI they are all retiring except Sulu (which was also odd, why would they all retire together?) and werent on regular duty.

If some of the actors come back, and others decline, I think you should either plug other characters in the gaps, or recast the whole movie. I don’t like the partial recasting, it’s too weird. No more Kristie Alley/Robin Curtis nonsense…..try at least a movie or two with new characters.

Quinto won’t come back? Open a casting call for Saavik!

Saldana won’t come back? Now’s the time to cast Janice Rand, and plug her in!

No Karl Urban? Plug in Chapel, or M’Benga. Hey, or go old school and plug in Piper.

Pegg flies the coop? Uhm….well, it’s hard to replace Scotty, but if I had to do it, I would just name the new officer “Commander Scott Doohan”, get Chris Doohan to play him (with mustache, thankyoumuch) and have Kirk say, “Commander Doohan, Scott Doohan. Is it okay if we call you Scotty? It’s easier to remember if I need to beamed up quickly from a planet…”

Kirk is the most difficult character though. Unless it’s Picard, I think people would have a problem with a person captaining the Enterprise who was not Kirk. Could the public accept a Captain Spock? I dunno….but it might be interesting to do something like put Number One under him as the first officer, and make her stubborn and aloof, and just as aggravating to Spock as Spock was to Kirk….

ORRRRRRRRRRR…….you get some of the cast to come in and do a Generations style handoff to a TNG Reboot. Now THAT would be cool.

You know, that might actually be a sensible way to go, now that I think about it. Try to sign this cast for another 3 picture deal. If that fails, try to sign them for a one picture deal. If that fails, or you have significant gaps, get a few people to do a cameo and roll straight into TNG movies. By now, there are so many people who grew up with TNG, that TNG will seem like nostalgia. I think people would go out to see a TNG movie.

I can picture it now…..

Anchorage, Alaska…..inside of a jazz bar, a rebel trombonist with the chin of a newborn babe tries to pick up a beautiful young cadet assigned to the shipyards there (space is cold, so it makes sense to build ships in a cold environment)who somehow finishes his sentences before he does. He plies her with so many bad pickup lines that other male cadets intervene. A fight occurs. The young man gives as well as he gets, but finally ends up overpowered. He’s about to be beaten senseless by his own trombone, until an older Starfleet Officer, Jean Luc Picard (played by a bald Daniel Craig) blows a whistle and breaks it up. He tells the young man that he’s reviewed his SAT scores, and thinks he might make a brilliant officer. He also tells him that he knew his father, and his father would be ashamed….that he didn’t have an awesome beard. The young man promises to grow an awesome beard, and join Starfleet while he waits….

There are only two ways out of that mess…

1) Recast parts or all of the characters and continue the voyages of the original Enterprise crew with different actors… Since they are NOT the original cast anymore anyway, I wouldn’t bother. Shatner, Nimoy and Co. are history anyway, as is Sean Connery, so now we could move on to Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, Craig… there would be four Kirks, three different Spocks and five different Scottys at some point…but why not…

2) Move on to a reboot of the Next Generation set in the new timeline… now THAT could be awesome, but only if done right. PLUS: Sign these actors on for 5+ movies and release them annually… As much as I love the idea of JJ’s reboot, but having to wait almost 10 years for a trilogy is dreadful…

Option No. 3 would be yet another break from Trek movies, but why on Earth would Paramount wanna do that, as a new space opera hype is about to take off with Star Wars, the Avatar sequels, Guardians of the Galaxy, Interstellar etc… no way they don’t want their piece of the action…:-)

Sounds like what he really means is they will get tough with negotiations. I hope they don’t demand too much.

This was on the cards as soon as they started casting big up and comers like Pine and Saldana. You simply won’t ever get long term commitments from actors who are increasingly approaching the top of their game, and getting busier and more in demand, because, understandably, they want to movie beyond things like Trek and become firmly established lead actors. I think people are both kidding themselves if they thought this cast would ever stick together like any of the TV casts did and re in denial somewhat over tyhe nature of Hollywood.

This all comes back to why this whole reboot enterprise (no pun intended) has been nothing more and nothing than a huge short term money spinner. After the third movie, or, at a push, the fourth, you will either see recasting (which isn’t remotely ideal) or the franchise will restart again.

someone stating that the most important (and bigger loss in case they are not available) are Pine, Quinto and Urban only and not Saldana is clearly projecting their preference for the characters as well as TOS dynamics over the reboot. A mistake that some people in this site do often.

Those who follow the fandom (and the media) a bit know that in the reboot Zoe, Chris, Zachary and Karl are the most popular. The first 3 taking the most in terms of sites, posts, blogs, tags and fanworks dedicated to them. Which is also, in a way, supported by the promotional stuff of these movies that often has Kirk, Spock, Uhura as a trio (ala Ron/Hermione/Ron, thus using the two males and one female formula). The critics also tend to comment on these 3 foremost followed by the others. And here’s where people are projecting TOS and pretending that in the reboot Uhura doesn’t have, as the female lead, at least equal importance to McCoy who is neither Kirk nor Spock, anyway.(and it’s clear that Uhura and McCoy are supporting characters more prominent than others like Chekov but the story is pretty much the Kirk and Spock show)
Zoe is, at the moment, the biggest star of them all.
Quinto probably is the one who had his own loyal fanbase even before trek since heroes and that’s, in part, the reason why he’s very popular in the reboot. Like, don’t even try to pretend that losing one of the main 4 wouldn’t be a problem.

Pegg is on record saying he wants to play Scotty for at least as long as James Doohan did it in whatever capacity. You know what that means? Scotty and Sulu with Deker and Illia are taking command in movie #4!!

21. Cygnus-X1 – October 2, 2014

Don’t be such a jerk. Just b/c you don’t like the films, that doesn’t mean all those involved aren’t sincere in trying to create a good product. I am sure that none of the actors want to be typecast, or that they want to limit their range of projects they want to be involved in. And it may be that they are hedging their commitment to the franchise in order to negotiate for a better paycheck. Whatever the reasons, I believe Cho wants to be a part of the ‘Trek franchise, but want to do more than play the role of a pilot on a fictional starship.

These days are not like the old days. Good actors are not typecast so much anymore. Talented actors move from stage to movies to TV and back and forth. Saldana and Pine are the two most movie-oriented; Quinto circulates from stage to TV to movies, keepin’ it fresh, and producing, Pegg’s doing more movie roles [and producing], Urban’s done movies and TV, Cho’s done movies and TV, Yelchin ditto.

I don’t think any of these actors would turn their nose up at appearing in a 10-episode premium-channel series [a la Game of Thrones, but I hope on Netflix] per year. Quinto’s two-year schedule on American Horror Story allowed him to do nearly 10 months of theatre work.

A movie generally takes about three months for an actor to shoot; with careful timing I imagine it could be done, even with Ms Saldana’s busy schedule.

I’d like to see a fourth and fifth movie, but even more I’d love to see two ten-week quality TV stories with this cast. Then morph into another cast gradually taking over duties on the Enterprise. And if someone can’t make a couple of episodes because of conflicts, say, Ms Saldana, Uhura could be away on Temporarily Assigned Duty. Spock too, for that matter. [I know Quinto abhors the daily eyebrow plucking and the bowl haircut.]

But I love this cast together, they have great chemistry, all have good dramatic and comic chops, and I’d love to get to see more of them.

NextGen redux? Meh.