2024 marks the 8th year since the last Star Trek feature film, 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. Paramount has made many attempts to follow that film up with the latest news being they are actually developing two new Trek films. Now one of the stars of the recent films, Zoe Saldana, is weighing in on all the latest reports about Trek.
Saldana talks Star Trek 4
While promoting her Paramount+ series Special Ops: Lioness, Zoe Saldana talked to comicbook.com about the latest Star Trek news. The actress said she was keeping up on reports Paramount is planning on moving forward with a follow-up to Star Trek Beyond while also doing an “origin story” movie set before the 2009 Star Trek film. Saldana said of the news…
“I know. I mean I heard what you heard in the trades. I just heard that they’re gearing up to do a new one with a younger sort of, take on it. Like it’s been off,” Saldana admitted. “I don’t know if it’s from the before or the after, but that they really still hope to grab all of us veterans and bring us back for one last round. Listen, I know it’s a lot to wrangle a whole bunch of people with busy schedules. But, working with J.J. Abrams, and for J.J. Abrams at Bad Robot was always just a wonderful and beautiful experience for me. So, if I get to do that one last time, I would be so grateful.”
Zoe Saldana plays Uhura in Star Trek Beyond (Paramount Pictures)
The latest news regarding the Star Trek 4 follow-up to Beyond was that Paramount was planning on it being the final film for the Kelvin cast. No director has been announced since Matt Shakman exited that project in 2022. Toby Haynes has been tapped to helm the separate “origin story” movie that “expands on the Star Trek universe.”
These potential feature film projects are being developed while Paramount+ moves forward on their first made-for-streaming Star Trek movie, with Star Trek: Section 31 set to start filming this week in Toronto. There is also another potential mysterious film project that would involve the character of Jean-Luc Picard which Patrick Stewart said was being written late last year.
Alice Eve, Simon Pegg, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Chris Pine and director J.J. Abrams at Berlin premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness (Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)
As always, we will do our best to keep up with all the latest Star Trek movie news.
Find more news on all the upcoming Trek movies at TrekMovie.com.
“I know. I mean I heard what you heard in the trades…” That statement tells you everything you need to know about the status of ” in development “. I’d imagine we’ll hear similar comments from Pine and Quinto in the coming weeks.
Hope no one is holding their breath on anything happening anytime soon.
Yeah, you’re right. At this point, I’m just not optimistic. : (
It’s a shame. I really loved those Abrams films, all 3 of them. Yeah, they all had some skimpy continuity and some holes (e.g. Nero just waited for 25 years for Spock, huge sizes of Federation ships, the whole Khan fake that wasn’t a fake out at all, and the Enterprise plunging to Earth in STID thanks to the earth’s gravity, Sulu turned gay), but I really really liked the Star Wars rock and roll action, the high level production, and the wonderful cast that JJ Abrams assembled. I loved Star Trek Beyond and I’m bummed that it didn’t make as much money as they wanted. It got great critical and audience reviews. I find that really sad, since both my wife and I thought it was better than Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It’s weird, the first 2 movies by Abrams did extremely well, so why didn’t Beyond? Because they had a different director? Because it had been too long a wait between films? Because of the marketing? I dunno.
Whatever happened, it’s put another film in limbo. It would be great if they did get that last film to put some kind of ending stamp on this cast’s story. What that is, I don’t know. I was already bummed that Nimoy passed away when Beyond was in development. If I recall, they wanted him in it and he wanted to be in it, but he was to sick at that point to film anything and then he passed away. : (
They cut the scene where we see Nero and crew escape a Klingon prison they had been held in for that amount of time
The reasons Beyond underperformed are manifold: first, Beyond seems to be the favorite of more die-hard Trekkies than the general public – its easter eggs and sentimentality for the 50th anniversary just resonated more with that audience. But the fact is it’s actually a weak film – nonsensical in many places, actually fairly unmemorable, quite rushed. So from a filmmaking and storytelling perspective, Beyond is a very average movie. And that’s fine – Star Trek films usually were average movies, they were base hits not blockbuster home runs. If they were cheaper, they would be in development every 2-4 years.
Also, Into Darkness was really what derailed the Kelvin films. JJ decided he wanted to make his hokey Spielberg ripoff Super 8 after Trek 09 instead of a sequel, and all of the excitement and pop culture impact of that film got diluted over a four-year wait for the next one. It didn’t help that the follow up was so incredibly divisive, among fans and non-fans, and it’s another pretty mediocre movie, albeit one dressed up in high production values. So if you want to know where Beyond failed, look to Into Darkness.
The other factors? Well, there was the awful first trailer for Beyond that went with Force Awakens. There was the fact that Paramount completely neglected to do anything of merit for the 50th anniversary. There was the fact that the summer of 2016 was crowded with blockbuster films, and Beyond was sandwiched right in the middle of that stretch. If Paramount had delayed its release by just 7 more weeks – so that it coincided the week of the 9/8 anniversary of Star Trek’s premiere – it would’ve had practically no competition, and could’ve been a juggernaut leading into the fall.
You laid it out completely right! 👍
I think new fans had already stopped caring, especially now that Star Wars was back. And the first two movies, especially Star Trek Into Destruction divided old Trekkies. By the time Beyond came around, the hype was over.
That said, Beyond was the only one I liked and I liked it because it at least felt like a TOS movie and not a Star Wars or comic book movie pretending to be Star Trek.
But it still didn’t really feel that special on it’s own and still a lot of dumb JJ verse moments and mystery box nonsense. Seriously why did Krall need to hide his identity again? Who was he hiding it from? Why did he give himself a super villain sounding name instead? How did he know the Enterprise found his super weapon he’s been looking for around 50 years or something? How does he know about it at all? And why didn’t he just go get it himself? Why is he so angry at the Federation for being ‘stuck’ on a planet he could’ve left at anytime? Literally anytime? His entire angry monologue falls apart the second he jumped in his ship and warped 5 to the starbase.
And the whole ‘I’m mad at the Federation because it wants peace ‘ felt as ridiculous as Shinzon’s “I’m mad at the Federation because I really hate Picard for existing’. Stop with the ridiculous motives.
But it’s not nearly as dumb as the first two movies but it’s still pretty dumb. But it actually feels like Star Trek and Kirk doesn’t come off like a dumb spoiled jock like the first two movies and (kind of) feels like a mature leader here. No Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Pike or OG Kirk but better at least.
But sadly it was the only movie I liked since First Contact. If that doesn’t tell you how bad I think most of these movies are, nothing will.
unfortunately kirk let the swarm rip apart the enterprise when he should have heeded spock’s warning that the ship could not cope with such an engagement.
still making this kirk hopeless as a strategist compared to prime kirk
edison should have been front and centre from the start, a mad captain leading aliens just like garth or ron tracey
There was also the scrapped Orci ST3 (rejected for bring ‘too star trek’ according to Pegg, apparently paramount wanted it more ‘Guardiansy’) that would’ve brought Shatner back as Kirk (prime) and the kelvin timeline under threat from a villain wanting to alter the timeline back to how it shouldve been with the use if some ancient time device , which (imo) sounded a far superior story for the anniversary and for audiences hard fan and casual (Shatner, time travel/alt realities, Alice Eve back as Carol, Bryan Cranston as the villain), ok it might not have done much better than Beyond but it sounded more along the movie that would’ve intrigued audiences (like ST09 did), than the FastFurious/Guardians/ToS/GoldKey mishmash of Beyond
“nonsensical in many places, actually fairly unmemorable, quite rushed.”
It’s at most one of those (the last one.)
Yeah, her quote really doesn’t make me feel like anything is going to bring the movie out of development hell anytime soon.
So happy for you dude. Wish I was at your house for the champagne tonight
I’m still a little bewildered regarding what an “origin story” of the Kelvin Timeline side of things could entail. We saw the origins of it in the 2009 film.
To me it sounds like it’s going to be filling in the details after the Nero incursion. I don’t think it’ll follow the Enterprise crew, but maybe follow the families of them? Possibly like a Caprica to Battlestar Galactica. But I hear you 100% – I don’t know what else you would call 2009 but an origin story. They covered everything…
A prequel of a prequel? That sounds exciting and something fans been begging to see… said no one. 🙄
Wake me up when we’re back in the prime universe and going forward again. Otherwise more JJ verse feels like a complete waste of time at this point.
What does the time period matter? A good story is a good story, regardless of the in-universe year it’s based in.
I hate prequels. They are boring because you usually know where the story will ultimately lead. Not always of course but usually, especially in movies.
In most sequels everything is usually wide open and can tell any story you want. And because Star Trek has so much canon it really limits things. Good example is I love the Carsassians, one of my top 3 species. But they can’t appear on Enterprise or SNW because Starfleet didn’t run into them until early 24th century so no Carsassians stories.
And you also know who can never die if they were introduced before. But it’s Star Trek, it’s hard for anyone to die or at least forever. 😉
Actually wait a minute, I just remembered SNW introduced the Gorn and completely destroyed that canon since they weren’t supposed to be introduced until TOS. So ignore that complaint I guess lol.
Oddly that’s the other with prequels and they usually ignores canon completely, especially in NuTrek.
But if they introduced the Gorn in Picard or something there would be no issues at all. That’s why sequels are usually better, especially in NuTrek when writers can’t constrain themselves.
Meh. Pass.
I’d much rather see a trilogy involving Archer’s NX-01 Enterprise, Pike’s Enterprise, and Seven of Nine’s Enterprise-G.
Maybe thats what the Picard movie will be (3 eras of Trek 60 anniversary event extravaganza )
That would be epic.
I just feel that now that Star Trek is back, particularly with one series about Pike and the prospect of one about Seven on two different Enterprises, it would be fantastic to see Archer walk on both as the perfect button to his story.
I know some with disagree, but I actually really liked Star Trek 2009 and I liked the story that integrated Leonard Nimoy’s prime Spock into the story. If they are planning to have one more movie with that cast, I say bring it on!
I liked it, too. The only good Kelvin film so far, IMO (Into darkness had promise but didn’t work and Beyond was forgettable).
It’s also Abrams’ only (almost) great film.
It’s definitely the best thing Abrams ever did. Beyond is wholly forgettable which is too bad given how hard they tried and how much money they threw at it.
2009 is a fun, dumb action film. I wish it was substance over style, but it is enjoyable and that’s what counts.
Force Awakens is almost a companion piece in tone and style. Both were inspired by the original 1977 Star Wars film. In my own opinion.
All they need to do is treat these actors in a way commensurate to their acting experience – I would love to see a real dilemma that we can respond to empathetically.
The problem with treating them commensurate to their acting experience is $$$ lol just getting this cast back would eat probably half the budget.
2026 gonna be a great year for Trek movies. S31 movie, Picard movie, ST09 prequel movie all on P+, and the 4th Kelvin movie in cinemas!.
Prognosis Negative.
How does that line go? A presumption of facts not in evidence?
I’m not a lawyer….
I’m referencing a SEINFELD episode where they are anxious to see a movie by that title.
If or when ST 14 arrives in cinemas, the same time will have been passed by like TMP after the end of TOS.
a new Star Trek II would be most acceptable
Isn’t that what we already got with ID? Also, isn’t that what they did with FOR ALL MANKIND’s timeline, where they skipped TMP and went straight to TWOK for the first TREK feature (still haven’t seen the series, but hope to get a trial of Apple this year to binge it and SEVERANCE.)
Hated into Darkness
A new story after TMP era
Spock yelling “Khaaaaan!” was stupid beyond belief.
I bet by the time another movie arrives it could actually be between when TOS ended and TNG started. 😁
yes, lots to tell there
Wonder if they’ll copy TMP only 2 and a half years have past in-universe time difference lol (like ID was only supposed to be set a few months after 2009)
Wow they are still making a movie they announced three years ago and yet no one from Paramount has still bothered to even call her about it? 😂
Still haven’t replaced the director after the last one bounced a year and a half ago. Not one word if they finished the script or just wrote a new one or announced who is actually writing it. No word on any new release dates or if they plan to even start filming it this year…or not. And if they were planning on making it this year, seem like a good idea to give the actors a phone call or something.
But good thing to know 8 years on it’s still really really happing! 😁
ZZzzzzzzz I don’t care. Dump the JJ garbage and get back to decent Trek movies.
It does seem odd that Abrams still has control over the Star Trek movies when he has long since departed his production deal with Paramount for everything else he does.
Yes! Dump JJ altogether, can we please?
It’s surprising to me they are still bothering with either Abrams or JJ verse at this point? The last one was 8 years ago and it bombed. They keep saying they are going to make another one but keep failing at that too.
Maybe it’s a sign the people supposedly making it don’t have any real confidence anymore either and it’s time to dump JJ and find something new and cheaper so it at least has a chance to make a profit.
More JJ verse will most likely just be another bomb or at best will break even with so much time passing and a lot of people no longer caring. These movies hit their height over a decade ago already.
Why would they have confidence with a movie with a 300 million dollar budget. Where nearly every film last year underperformed or flopped beyond a few. Where people have other economic concerns like high rents, electrical, gas and grocery prices and a post covid recession combined with inflation. Things aren’t all right, my own expenses have gone up 200 hundred a week. Just for example.
No more Kelvin please, that was something when we were out of Star Trek in 2009, but now we have a lot of good Star Trek, let’s keep the focus on the current and next series.
Could they convince JJ to direct a 4th one, its the only way i see it being as successful as the first two. But since Rise of Skywalker his star has sort of fallen, and everyone thinks he is the cinematic death of Sci Fi franchises.
Noooopoooo!!!!!
And for many Trek fans it was Star Trek Into Dumbness where he fell off…hard.
He doesn’t seem to have much going on directing movies wise (currently exec producing a few new TV series, and listed as producing the untitled Trek prequel, and the ‘black superman project’ but I think that was in production before James Gunn took over the DCU so may not go ahead now) so maybe he will come back to Trek to direct ST4.(esp as it has no director now, and the cast are getting asked about it all the time). Beyond certainly missed him , I get the impression had he stayed on ST instead of going to SW wed have got the Orci ST3 script of the timeline under threat from a villain wanting to alter it back to prime timeline with Shatner for the 50 anniversary celebrating old and new Trek . Once he left for SW its like Orci’s script lost its momentum and ‘the suits’ stepped in to give the audience what they thought was best (ToS by way of Guardians and F&F with lots of explosions with the Enterprise going down, cool rock music, and motorbike action!)