Zoe Saldaña Wants Uhura To Move Beyond The Comms Station In ‘Star Trek 4’

We are getting another update from a member of the Kelvin Universe movies crew as they wait to see a script for their fourth Star Trek feature film. This time it’s Zoe Saldaña, who is following along with some of her other co-stars in pondering who her character of Uhura should be a decade after she last played her.

Time for Uhura to step up?

It’s been over eight years since Paramount Pictures released Star Trek Beyond, and they have been trying to get a follow-up movie going ever since. A new screenwriter was brought in earlier this year by producer J.J. Abrams to take another crack at what Paramount is now saying would be the final film for the Kelvin crew. And Zoe Saldaña has some thoughts. The actress has kept busy with several high-profile franchises, and her latest film role is a bit of a departure: the title character in the French musical crime comedy Emilia Pérez, which garnered her a Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for Best Actress.

Speaking to Variety about this new role, the actress also discussed her career in big-budget genre franchise films. She has said goodbye to Gamora from the MCU and signed on to play Neytiri in two more Avatar movies. As for Star Trek, she is ready to return, but has hopes to see Uhura evolve. From Variety:

As for Uhura, Saldaña would like to see her ascend to a leadership position in “Star Trek 4.” “She’s a xenolinguistics master, but I would like her doing something else,” Saldaña says. “I’m curious to see her relationship with Spock (Zachary Quinto) and how that has evolved.”

Zoe Saldaña as Uhura with Zachary Quinto as Spock in Star Trek Beyond (Paramount Pictures)

Recently we have seen a bit of a trend for the actors for the Kelvin movies, who continue to talk about how much they are hoping to reunite for another film to follow up 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. They’re also acknowledging of the passage of time as they are all now well into their forties (or their fifties, for Karl Urban and Simon Pegg). Chris Pine has recently said he wants to see Star Trek 4 deal with how James T. Kirk is getting “a lot older.” And last month, Zachary Quinto stated he has no issues with there being a big time gap between films, noting the original Star Trek actors performed “well into their 50s, 60s,” although he added, “We might not be running as fast on the other planets.”

As for Zoe, she may be ready to return to the final frontier, but the mother of three children isn’t sitting by the phone waiting for the call. Again from Variety:

But she’s only holding half her breath as she waits to read a script. “In the first years when these sequels were becoming a thing in my life, I wouldn’t do anything. I would just live my life and wait,” she says. “Now I’m learning that there’s so many things I want to do. I’m like ‘Hey, what’s out there?’”

Like she wishes for Uhura to do, Saldaña has been moving into leadership herself, taking on the role of producer in multiple film and television projects. She’s an executive producer on her Paramount+ series Lioness, which just had its season 2 premiere earlier this week.

Saldaña will certainly be waiting for a while to get back into a Starfleet uniform. Paramount has confirmed that the next Star Trek feature film on their slate is actually an untitled Star Trek origin movie with a new cast, based on a script from Seth Grahame-Smith (The Lego Batman Movie) with Andor‘s Toby Haynes set to direct. That movie is on Paramount’s 2026 release slate.

Saldaña’s latest on big and small screen

Emilia Pérez starring Zoe Saldaña opens in limited theaters this Friday. It will be released on Netflix on November 13th. Here is the trailer.

The second season of Special Ops: Lioness debuted on October 27 on Paramount+. Here’s the season 2 trailer.


Find more news and analysis on upcoming Star Trek feature films.

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I’d love to see more, but I honestly do not expect this film to be made.

It sounds like she doesn’t really either.

We have SNW Uhura…no one wants the awful JJverse back

Speaking for all of fandom, I see. I have no issue at all with a return visit to the Kelvin universe.

I wish they would do something really radical with the Kelvin Universe like have Kirk and Spock fighting the Borg to see how that would play out. Have the Borg take over the Klingon Empire and head towards Earth or something that you would never do with the Prime Universe.

They already blew up Vulcan. That’s radical enough for me.

Agreed!

They really need to stop it with multiple, inconsistent versions of the characters. SNW’s versions are perfectly good. Maybe Kirk is a bit off, but I like their Spock, Uhura and Scotty. Chapel’s been revamped for the better. T’Pring has more dimensionality.

Chapel exists solely to be Spock’s love interest, especially in Season 2 of SNW. There’s little else besides her except vague hints that she might be pansexual.

That isn’t true at all.

Well if you say that, if *must* be true.

Yep, it’s true. Chapel’s a good character and she’s a lot more than just Spock’s love interest (which canon demands will go nowhere anyway).

Chapel exists solely to be Spock’s love interest” is objectively untrue since she has had compelling storylines that don’t involve Spock.

She’s one of the better characters in her own right. I like the actress.

I like both Uhura’s personally but sadly they didn’t give Saldana’s much character development outside she can speak a lot of languages and Spock is her boyfriend. We learned way more about the SNW version in five minutes in the second episode of season one.

Well one’s a movie with a lot of action and one’s a TV show that gives them a lot more time for character development. It’s the nature of the mediums.

Which is why TV should lead the way for Star Trek characters and then those characters can jump to the big screen.

The notion that only these or those actors are allowed to star in big screen movies is silly and overly limiting.

Well movies, the good ones at least, give character development all the time. Actors get nominated for Oscars for how well thought out their characters they play are.

But yes I get your point and exactly why Star Trek is just a better fit on TV. It’s not that they CAN’T do more with characters in the movies but with Star Trek it relies more on plot and action and only 2-3 of the leading characters get any development at all. It basically became the Picard and Data show in the TNG movies as well.

But with the Kelvin movies Uhura was considered a huge character and third behind Kirk and Spock. She was given plenty to do but zero character development outside of her job and relationship with Spock. But hey at least they finally gave her a first name, so that’s something. 😉

A lot of people want the JJverse back. You do not speak for fandom, and there are an infinite diversity of opinions other than yours. IDIC, ya’ll.

Let’s see how the next movie does, if it ever gets made. Franchises can lose their oomph if they screw up too often. It ain’t just Star Trek. I have similar reservations about the Star Wars Rey movie they have planned.

*You* don’t want the JJverse back.

Not “no one”.

I want another ST film with the Abrams’ cast. I really enjoyed all 3 of the films and I loved the new take on the characters and the SW action that JJ added to it.

Honestly I favor the Kelvin cast by a mile.

Ten (or lots more) years down the line, I’d be disappointed if most of the lower raking bridge officers didn’t get promoted and moved on to more responsibilities…..

Since they made Kirk a captain after his three years at Starfleet Academy I expect him to be Federation President by now.

Ming, the Merciless. Trek – Flash Gordon crossover.
I smell an Oscar….

And yet in TOS they were all pretty much in place (apart from Kirk and Chekov) about fifteen years later. By VI it was a little ridiculous that there were basically no lower-ranking officers.

You’re an admiral!……and you’re an admiral!!……and you’re an admiral!!……and you’re an admiral!!…

🤣

Sorry, Zoe, but the one thing Paramount needs to do when the Ellisons take over, is to make the series and movies coherent. No more multiple Kirks, Spocks and Uhuras. That is no way to run a franchise and build fan loyalty. Uhura is being treated the worst, since we have three, and they neither look nor act like the others. They all have different personalities.

The original Uhura might not be viable in this day and age. Saldana’s is a generic bad-ass girl template (to match Pine’s generic bad-boy Kirk). Bleah, no. SNW’s Uhura is the keeper. The green ensign type, but with linguistic skills that are often creatively used as the basis of stories. She’s not just a space secretary!

That is incredibly disrespectful to communications officers. They are not secretaries and are a vital component of any vessel’s functions – both military and civilian.

Its been so long that a 4th movie would actually fall into ‘legacy sequel’ category now, like Top Gun Maverick (coming up for 10y since Beyond and near 20 since ST09) .so maybe call this Star Trek Legacy lol

oh no – you said the ‘L’ word

but ST will never do the same business as ‘maverick’ on the big screen.

Tom Cruise as Lazarus. Box office – 1.4b

Didn’t they get another writer earlier this year for the fourth or fifth new development of these movies? Have we heard a single thing since? There is still no director since the last one bounced over two years ago.

I have never seen a studio handle a franchise this badly in decades. If they are this scared (or broke) to make a movie nearly a decade later, then maybe they should stop trying to make it?

I like the idea of them being too scared to make it! Maybe they should face their fear and give us a full on Trek horror movie! for release October 26 (coincide with anniversary and Halloween) The Enterprise crew vs a lost ship full of vampires!

I’m sure they will develop that idea for 6 months and hire a writer and director for it before they go back to their main fear and cancel it.

I wish I could be more positive but 8 years and 7 movie announcements later with still no hint of any movie going into production has taught me not to be.

Wheel!….Of!!….Star Trek Writers!!
Que the game show music, as Vanna White starts flipping scripts.

I agree, but as far as a studio mishandling a franchise, let me suggest Disney with Star Wars…

Oh yeah Star Wars is certainly up there obviously. But it only took them 5 years to finally get another movie out lol.

But overall Star Wars is certainly the bigger loser these days in terms of fan reception.

They should move on to Kelvin TNG now. SNW is doing just fine with the TOS characters.

There is precedent for this. I remember watching interviews with Nichelle Nichols about how Gene Roddenberry described the character of Nyota Uhura to her during, if I recall properly, the time they were starting TOS’s second season. With Uhura having been seen wearing a gold Command Division uniform during some of the first episodes of Season One, apparently (—and this is a good in-universe explanation—) Uhura had been in Starfleet’s “Command College” training program in addition to her duties in Communications [maybe had already started under Pike’s command if we factor in ST: SNW episodes, noted in the final paragraph, below], and in 1968 Roddenberry described Uhura as being FOURTH IN COMMAND of Kirk’s USS Enterprise, under Kirk, Spock and Scotty. If he wasn’t in error, and if this is so, it presents at least one interesting avenue for Zoe’s potential exploration of where “her” Uhura can go.

We saw many ‘below decks’ crew (various Extras in Desilu’s production of Star Trek TOS) wearing different color uniforms from week to week, and so we can infer an “in universe” reason: These were people being cross-trained in a variety of tasks within what was often referred to as “The Service.” This would likely be a necessary and serious precaution for any and all personnel aboard any space vessel as if there were any issues in flight, most of those on board could assist in any necessary repairs – especially if Life Support issues were in question.

We’re also seeing that idea carried over into ST: Strange New Worlds (as a welcome reference to TOS) with characters doing different jobs and/or Division cross-training [witness the episodes of SNW where Hemmer was seen training Uhura in Engineering Operations], so there is all the back-story one needs to write Uhura’s [new training] in a future JJ movie.

All one has to do is watch what’s been filmed before (TOS is the best platform for basic ‘Trek back-story regarding “The Service”) to be inspired to figure out how to make Zoe’s hope a reality.

Bro, they made a three year cadet who been in space for all of six days a captain to their flagship in the first movie and he promoted a 17 year old ensign navigator to Chief Engineer on a whim in the second movie. This is JJ verse, no one has to think this hard about this because no one making those movies ever did lol.

Uhura could be a Vice Admiral or something if this movie ever happens and no one will blink.

LMAO, sad but very true.

And it’s a strong reminder these are popcorn action movies end of the day. They aren’t made for serious Trek fans in mind, just for general audiences who are waiting to get to the next action set piece. They will probably keep her as a communication officer but it won’t remotely matter if they gave her another position altogether judging by how flagrant they treat promotion and rank in these movies.

They are popcorn action movies designed for teenagers in mind. That’s obvious anytime someone spits out dialogue.

LDS is also designed for teenagers and is a comedy and yet still take rank and promotion much more seriously than JJ verse. 😂🙄

To TG1701 and Tiger2, all of the above was meant as a springboard for whomever writes such a story — a way to make it work using what’s come before in ST. It’s a great platform to work from, and while some might suggest that established canon is too restricting, I go the other way: as a writer myself I’d stand on the established platform of ‘Trek canon and weave more into the tapestry that’s already there …. and ENJOY myself in that task.

Zoe, what say YOU?

I’m certainly not getting on your case about it, you actually care about logic and trying to craft a legitimate way to advance her. That’s the way they should be thinking about it.

But ths is JJ verse, they are going to do whatever to advance the plot and do it with as little effort as possible. In Star Trek Into Dumbness Kirk was busted down from captain to cadet to first offcer to captain again in the span of two days. That ridiculous nonesense proves no one is thinking that hard about this stuff.

They could make Uhura Captain, throw out a line she went back to the Academy and that will be it.

These movies never remotely cared about ‘established canon’. If you believe that, white Khan would like a word with you. 🙄

“But ths is JJ verse, they are going to do whatever to advance the plot and do it with as little effort as possible.”

Yep! In fact your point about Kirk’s ‘demotion’ in STID is another good example. I remembered when that subplot was leaked online months before the film came out. And many people, including me, thought we would see Kirk literally going back to the Academy, finish his last year or something. Or at least that Kirk does something that proves he should be captain after all.

Instead, they literally did nothing with it. He was promoted back to captain in a span of 15 minutes in the movie. What was even the point?? We know why they did it because they got crap over how easy it was he became captain but this didn’t help the situation and in fact made it worse lol.

Because then he still made horrible decisions once he became captain again and went after Khan.. Obviously that’s probably why Marcus had no problem making him captain again because he assumed he could manipulate him and he did.

But I would be all in if these movies took a serious view of these characters advancing through the ranks but these movies are not that type of story. Because the ‘how’ doesn’t remotely matter, it’s simply the “why”.

that kirk tended to get a break during a crisis so ended up on the enterprise in the first film wjhen nero attacked and was back as captain when khan went after marcus at starfleet HQ.

Which both are still silly, but as said, it’s a two hour popcorn action movie and not Das Boot, so I don’t think it’s a big deal. And people want to see Kirk as captain. But the ‘how’ he became one was ridiculous.

I want to iterate as well I wasn’t trying to knock your post at all. It’s well thought out and I would go one farther that would make a great subplot for the character in a movie and to literally see her deciding she wants a different career track and watch how she does that.

But yeah, that’s not these movies and as TG1701 saod they would just toss out a line she got promoted and just move on because they are built around the plot and not the character

And to be fairI don’t know if this is a ‘Kelvinverse’ issue and jist a NuTrek issue in general. Sevenis another character that got a very questionable promotion in Picard.

I remembered when the end of Picard 3 was airing basically everyone assumed she would just be promoted to captain in the last episode. Another poster argued why they didn’t think it was realistic saying that she is still too green and would need a lot more training since she had only been a first offcer a few months at best and wasn’t ready for the big chair yet.

Then we get to the final episode and sure enough….

And I didn’t disagree with their basic argument but end of the day we have to remember promoting characters in Star Trek is usually just an ends to a means and this isn’t the era of TOS and TNG anymore. The ‘how’ doesn’t matter anymore as much as the ‘why’ does.

That said they do seem to take it more seriously again on SNW and oddly enough LDS.

Oh yeah on top of that they made Jack an ensign after just completing one year at the Academy and assigned him to the Enterprise. It’s not as bad as KU Kirk’s ridiculous promotion but it’s still not good either lol.

didn’t sulu get the centre seat if kirk, spock or scotty were not avaliable?

It makes sense that all bridge officers were supposed to be in gold, unless they were heads of department like Spock.

The real reason for the change is that they thought she looked better in red. :-)

In TMP she wears the same uniform as Sulu and Chekov.

That’s pretty ironic since the reason why the gold command was changed to red in TNG because they thought Patrick Stewart looked better in red too. ;)

Well it’s a good thing she isn’t waiting by the phone (who waits by a landline these days anyways?) because she will probably be sixty by the time Paramount decides to make another movie.

They said the Starfleet movie would be made first and absolutely nothing has happened with that. I don’t see any of them getting made but I would love to be proven wrong.

Just make a fcking movie already Paramount, ANY movie!!

Yeah… we see what happens when they make any move. We’re getting Section 31. (Granted it’s made for TV not theaters but still, a movie.)

I, for one, do not have high hopes.

Just make a fcking movie already Paramount, ANY movie!!

Wish granted! There is a Star Trek movie starring an Oscar winner premiering in a mere 12 weeks on Paramount+!

Wishes do come true!

I meant for the cinema.

But I been predicting for awhile now we will probably get several streaming movies before we’ll ever get another theatrical one.

Oh, I’d imagine S31 will get a limited big screen release in LA and NY.
Wish granted…..if you live in LA or NY, and can score tickets.

I actually pushed for that idea several times…until I saw the trailer. I live in one of those cities but won’t be bothering if it happens unless the reviews are stellar. But it just looks so bad

“Waiting by the phone” is definitely one of those expressions that won’t compute for anyone born past a certain date. That’s not something you’d tend to do in an office, and that’s getting to be the only place you see landlines anymore.

I got a new F-150 EV a few weeks ago, and still find myself referring to the accelerator as the gas pedal.

I’d watch a live action Lower Decks + Kelvinverse crossover.

Mariner and Boimler & friends have some mission they have to accomplish in the Kelvinverse, while Pine’s Kirk & co. have equally valid reasons to stop them. Space chaos and comedic hijinks ensue. Act three is the massive space battle as seen in the opening credits of Lower Decks season 5 (complete w/ green hand and V’ger) with the addition of the Enterprise-A from Beyond. And they nope right out of there because, as Pine suggested, there should be “less S#!t exploding.”

Just dreaming here. Although at this point, I find any crazy story idea equally plausible to actually make it into production. Like others here, I do not believe another film with this cast will ever happen.

I’m cool with Uhura stepping up. It’s an alternative universe and I have no issues with the Kelvin timeline. It doesn’t affect the prime universe.

Leave Uhura where she does her best…
Change, change, change – ALWAYS CHANGING which ruins everything…

times have changed, you cannot park an actress like zoe in front of a console for the whole of a ST film.
just as moneypenny in the 007 films is given way more to do than sit behind a desk in M’s office.

But that was never the case in any of the movies either. She was doing plenty of fighting and part of the away team missions The first movie she never left the ship once the big mission started but was off the ship and became the hero several times in the sequels. I always hated they beamed down the communication officer to save Spock from Khan at the end of STID but they had a big actress so understandly used her.

But just like every bridge character in Star Trek they usually find plenty of ways to do stuff off the bridge. That’s never been an issue regardless what position a character played. Even the original Uhura was part of some away team missions.

uhura beamed down to save her boyfriend but also to stop him killing khan, which would have denied kirk a chance to use his blood and bring him back from the dead.

I saw the movie, yeah I know. My point is it would make more sense to send actual trained security officers down to take down the super augment who literally crushed someone’s head with his hands twenty minutes beforehand and not just the communications officer who wouldn’t last five minutes with the guy in the real world. But ‘sense’ is relative in these movies.

At the very least send security officers along with her if even Spock is getting his ass handed to him and has twice the strength of humans.

but it was uhura who talked spock down from killing khan when he got the upper hand, not something a ‘red shirt’ would have been able to do.

As I literally just said they still could’ve took several security officers with her. I just find it a bit ridiculous the guy who took down an entire brigade of Klingons and Section 31 crew members mostly on his own was going to be subdued by one communication officer. I understand they wanted to give Zoe Saldana a moment but Khan would’ve killed her two minutes in reality if Spock could barely handle him.

uhura was smart enough to blast khan on kill setting to stop him, which gave spock time to take him down.

My two cents, I’d probably rather see a final entry in the Kelvin series as opposed to whatever origin story has been proposed, but honestly neither is very compelling to me. Actually, I’m totally ambivalent about the Trek film ideas I’m hearing. Not that there seems to be any movement on either anyway. How shabbily this franchise has been treated.

Who cares what she wants? She’s not Uhura. She’s a creation of JJ “I never liked Star Trek” Abrams…..a man I would strand on a deserted island if I had a time machine….and a boat….and knew where a deserted island is…..

JJ’s deserted island tends to move through time and space. And it’s not quite deserted. And there’s a smoke monster.

zoe is the biggest star in the cast to paramount is bound to listen to her if they want her back for the next film.

I hear her, but let’s be honest, she’s not Nichelle Nichols: Unlike her Uhura, Saldana’s Uhura was basically treated as one of the three leads of the Kelvin movies. (Well, really there were two leads, but if there was a third, it was Uhura.) At least in the first movie it was very obvious both from the promotional material as well as from the script.

Yes, exactly.

Uhura strikes as so passionate about what she does that she really wouldn’t care about rank or leadership per se. She’s like an expert pianist. Just because the conductor has more prestige doesn’t mean every pianist wants to be a conductor some day. She’s on the bridge of the Enterprise doing what she loves to do and exercising her expertise. I mean, she deserves a higher rank and all to acknowledge her excellence, but she doesn’t need to captain a ship or anything. There’s such a thing as being content where you are, and I think Star Trek is wise to communicate that. Having her exercise her skills to the fullest and play a big role in resolving the plot would be nice if it fits the plot, but not everyone is a kung-fu fighter or born to captain a starship. I think that’s actually the stronger message. Show that every function on a starship is important and every crew member of value.

if you have a big star like ms salanda in your cast then you have to give her more to do than what uhura did in the OS tv show and movies

Yeah, that’s fair. My point is that the “more to do” should still be consistent with the character. For example, Uhura on SNW has had a lot more to do than either Nichols or Saldana’s Uhura, but the focus is on her passion for xeno-linguistics and communication, and those can draw out important themes in a story related to togetherness, connection, and overcoming cultural barriers.

Yeah the JJ-verse Treks are over. It really is silly to try to do another one, it will lose money.

The next Star Trek movie should be an all-new group of characters.

You mean, like Section 31?

Crap. I will insert foot in mouth.

I just don’t understand why they are still bothering since they already announced the next one will be the last anyway? It ended well enough with Beyond and a nice little trilogy. I could understand if narrative wise it sucked the way people perceived Nemesis and wanted to go out better, hence Picard season 3. But Beyond went out fine. Nothing amazing but a nice button to the series.

And I’m not suggesting we will never see those characters again. I suspect at some point someone may try and do a Paramount+ spin off show with the Kelvin universe. But another film just seems out of reach as every new project seems to die a quick death, but yet they keep pushing for it oddly.

Just another reminder that a really good cast was wasted with illogical stories. Like Chris Pine said, we need an intelligent Star Trek with less exploding crap.

There’s that Noah Hawley feature script gathering dust. Par could just rewrite that to fit, since he is busy now playing in the ALIEN verse.

Forgot about that. There’s at least a few good scripts lying around I would wager.

I think this ST prequel film is a stupid idea. They have a popular cast with the Kelvin characters so why not end it on a high note at least?

I don’t think it’s a big mystery 8 years later but it’s clearly $$$$.

That ‘popular cast’ is now a very expensive cast and the Kelvin movies were already a very expensive endeavor when they were originally on contract. Now they can demand anything for the next movie. Remember they didn’t even want to pay Pine the salary he was promised back on 2018 and that was reportedly around $6 million. That’s peanuts for what Robert Downy Jr makes playing Iron Man but the Kelvin movies makes peanuts compared to those movies and here we are.

But I agree with you the Starfleet movie sounds pretty uninteresting and another prequel just bores a lot of fans. But it will probably be a much cheaper movie to make with a brand new cast of actors and my guess way less explosions and CGI.

But if Beyond ar least broke even at the box office they probably would’ve just made the Hemsworth movie back in 2018 and paid everyone what they were promised. But once it bombed it clearly set a lot of doubt that the next one could be a success and Paramount isn’t flowing with money these days (probably the reason the Legacy show isn’t in the cards either). And the longer it takes probably less people care who aren’t on boards like this one and the hype for them died after STID. So they are in a very hard place with these movies.

I have major doubts it will ever get made at this point but have no problem being proven wrong. But so far I haven’t been lol.

I think Saldaña’s opinion is irrelevant and that SNW should be allowed to just finally end like the dead horse it really is.

I think you mean the Kelvin movies and not SNW?

In TOS Uhura sits in the captain’s chair and also repairs the wiring underneath her panel herself, with Spock telling her that no one else is better qualified to do it.

She was never meant to be a linguist, that’s why she couldn’t speak Klingon. She wears red because she’s an engineer. A linguist would wear blue (scientific study of languages).

Turning her into an interpreter in JJ verse, when they already have universal translator devices, and an unnecessary girlfriend was a huge downgrade.

Well her being a linguist is now part of the character since Uhura in SNW is also one. I think once they made Hoshi one in Enterprise, it inspired the Kelvin writers to do the same for Uhura and develop her a bit more outside an over-glorified phone operator. They didn’t even have that position in the other spin off shows and just rolled that position into other roles on the bridge.

I hope they finally move on from these silly movies.