Last week, Paramount Pictures officially confirmed it is developing a new “origin story” Star Trek feature film for its 2025/2026 release slate. Little is known about what this movie is about or who’s in it, but an unusual exchange on The View may offer a clue.
“What’s happening right now?”
The segment in question is actually from a couple of weeks ago, when Zoe Saldaña was doing publicity for her new movie Absence of Eden. In another interview, the actress had talked about how she was eager to return to play Uhura in a fourth Kelvin-era movie, although she didn’t have any concrete details about how or when that would happen. When The View co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin brought up Star Trek, Saldaña said something similar and noted Paramount had just hired another screenwriter to pen “a fourth script.”
Just after the subject of another Star Trek movie in the works was raised, Saldaña asked Whoopi Goldberg “Are you excited?” Goldberg, who played Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation (and later on Picard), joked “maybe,” and then co-host Joy Behar jumped into the conversation. That’s where things got a bit confusing, as she seemed to be hinting that she’d already heard about some kind of role for Goldberg. Here is the exchange:
Saldaña: Are you excited?
Goldberg: Maybe, just a little.
Behar: Don’t tip your hand yet.
Goldberg: What now?
Behar: Don’t tip your hand yet. Don’t tell them you got the job yet.
Goldberg: Okay.
Behar: Did you get the job?
Saldaña: For Star Trek? Oh my god!
Goldberg: What is happening right now?… I have no other work. I’m trying to get home to Sardinia.
Griffin: Do you have it or don’t you?
Goldberg: I don’t know.
You can watch the full conversation in the video below (starting at 8:35).
Whoopi in new Trek?
It is not entirely clear what was going on here, and it may be nothing. But it does seem that Behar was hinting that her Oscar-winning co-host was being considered for a role in a Star Trek movie, presumably as Guinan. The project most likely to be casting roles already would not be the “Star Trek 4” sequel to Star Trek Beyond, as that isn’t expected to arrive until 2027 at the earliest and is (as noted by Saldaña) going through yet another rewrite. The more likely possibility is the origin movie, which is reported to be going into production later this year. The film is said to have a script already, with a story set decades before the 2009 Star Trek film (set in the mid-23rd century). El-Aurians like Guinan are very long-lived and Next Generation and Picard lore establish that Guinan was present on Earth in the past and ran a bar in Los Angeles during the early 21st century.
Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan and Sir Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: Picard season 2
That said, this exchange on The View is far from definitive. Perhaps Behar was talking about a role for a different Star Trek project, possibly a streaming movie or one of the Paramount+ series. She also could have been completely mistaken, or could have been confusing one project with another and Goldberg has had no discussions about a return to Trek. Goldberg did nothing to confirm she’s returning to Star Trek, although if she has signed on (or is in talks) about it, her casting would be a secret she wouldn’t want to divulge in the middle of an interview on The View.
Goldberg has previously appeared as Guinan in two Star Trek feature films: Generations in 1994 and Nemesis in 2002. The new “origin” movie is expected to have a new cast, but it would not be surprising if some legacy characters were included to create continuity, like Leonard Nimoy’s appearance in the 2009 Star Trek movie. So Guinan in “Untitled Star Trek Origin Movie” is entirely plausible.
Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan in Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
For now, this is just another curiosity about the next Star Trek. What do you make of the exchange? Let us know in the comments.
Could it be this?
Goldberg does have one recent connection to Star Trek: She narrated a recap of the first four seasons of Discovery for a special edition of The Ready Room. That recap was released on YouTube on March 28, the same day the episode of The View was recorded with Zoe Saldaña. Presumably, Goldberg recorded it much earlier, as work on the Discovery season 5 episodes of The Ready Room started late last year. Behar (not being a big Star Trek fan) could have been conflating things related to Whoopi and Star Trek, and if Whoopi didn’t know what day the segment was coming out, she would have hesitated to clarify.
Find more news and analysis on upcoming Star Trek feature films.
I get a sense that this is just awkward poking by Joy, there is not actual secret there.
Yeah, I agree. They’re reading too much into this. Would be fun though!
I take it the same way. At best they were just referencing the narration,
There’s nothing to see here, other than actors pulling each other’s chains. Fun stuff.
I can see her being in either movie. Or both! That would be a cool thread between the movies. One of the few they have left.
Agreed, that would be a neat link.
Star Trek Origins: Guinan
we can finally learn how she met Mark Twain!
There’d better be some graphic hook up scenes if they go there….
Yeah who knows but I would guess if she was in something it would be the prequel movie since (apparently) they are supposed to be making that one soon. That JJ verse movie is never happening lol.
I would love to see Guinan back.
It could also be the rumoured Picard movie.
They could be one and the same. Maybe there’s a time travel story that frames the prequel story again.
Anything is possible at this stage Eric although I got the impression that follow up to Picard would be a TV movie. So little is known about the prequel movie though so it’s certainly possible that there will be some sort of framing story connecting it to some of the legacy characters.
Ugh I hope not. Picard was already there for First Contact. It would feel so forced for Picard have to go back once again in time to save the federation from never forming.
Be down for that idea too.
That rumored Picard movie got called out as bull s**t quite a while back.
Heya. I’d love to see Guinan back, just not in the Kelvin movies. That is entirely separate for me.
Lol I know how much you hate JJ verse. But no I don’t see that happening anyway because it’s not the same seeing JJ verse Guinan hanging out with new characters.
I want the Prime universe Guinan. Or maybe she goes back in time from the 25th century and ends up in JJ verse in the 23rd century and meet her younger version. That’s not bad. 😁
Yep you know me too well lol. The best thing those movies did is make them separate from Prime and putting ACTUAL Guinan in there decades before the events of 2009 would wreck all that.
I think Guinan in the Kelvin timeline makes a lot of sense, as she’s able to sense changes to the timeline.
THat’s true too but I think this is different. When Yesterday’s Enterprise happened it erased the Prime timeline. Guinan essentially got moved from one timeline to thee next. With Kelvin that is not the case as we can see the Prime timeline continued unaffected post Spock leaving as is evidenced by ST Picard and even Guinan being in it.
Same here, even though arguably, it’s possible her species could navigate separate timelines.
True. I mean if she can project herself in PIC S2 then who knows?
I’ve been saying Guinan will show up this season on Discovery since she narrated that one clip about the history of the series.
That would make more sense to me. They would have to de-age her for a prequel movie, but on Discovery she could appear as she is now.
It would make sense given her history and the El-Aurian species being long lived. I could see her and Pelia both showing up, maybe even holding the final clues.
Trek movie schedule:(revised edition):
S31 P+ – 2024
Origins movie – 2025
Legacy/Picard anniversary movie P+? – 2026
Kelvin ST4 – 2027
could show up in S31 movie as Guinan but they apparently have a super small budget so I don’t see them deaging her so maybe she’s in the supposed PIC movie that Stewart was talking about
Whoopi, she is just amazing. Would love to see Guinan again.
Not a cameo. A good and well deserved story.
Very much YES!!!!
I want more than a cameo too but does she have that kind of time given The View?
I think she will make the time, if invited. She is not only in The View. Every year, she works in several productions on the side.
I always say Whoopi constantly upgraded STNG. Missed opportunities. Having her always so grateful to the franchise, she should be considered to make a bold return.
During Picard Season 2, she was not feeling well, having several health/treatment related issues. I think this is one of the reasons they hired a younger actor.
I saw the video clip and she looks way better now. Even her voice is better, the Discovery clip, so cool to listen to her voice and her humor in the recap.
Maybe one of the future streaming movies they are considering doing could be about Guinan or she could appear in SNW as a kind of foil or pal of Pelia another long living species. Or they are secretly developing a Q vs Guinan movie but that would not appeal to mainstream audiences. That could be the plot of an upcoming streaming movie.
Would truly love to see Guinan back. Didn’t like season 2 of Picard much but Guinan was a big highlight.
Yeah, I thought Ito Aghayere did a fantastic job as Guinan too. That felt like great casting to me. I wouldn’t hate seeing both actors in the role, flashing back and forth in time maybe?
Agreed, if there was anything good out of PIC S2, it was bringing Guinan back. The rest was an absolute mess.
While I’d love to see Whoopi jump back into the role of Guinan in a solid role, I just hope it’s not a Guinan origin story. Part of the character’s appeal is the mystery surrounding her gifts (that presumably most or all El-Aurians share) and exactly how old she is.
I don’t think it could be could it? The origin movie is supposed to take place decades before ST 2009 and Guinan is way older than that
If it’s anything, I bet it’s the Picard Streaming Movie project. We’ll see. Not much here to count on anything other than Whoopi’s ongoing involvement in Trek, and I suppose that’s a good thing.
Is there actually a Picard Streaming Movie project, though?
That’s a pretty liberal reading of this exchange to leap to the conclusion that Goldberg is being considered for a role in a movie where a new writer had just been hired.
Fandom is busy filling in the production schedules (scroll this thread). If we roll into the third quarter without so much as a peep about progress on any of these proposed productions, guess what? You all have been played. Again.