Paramount Pictures is working on a new Star Trek film with director Toby Haynes and writer Seth Grahame-Smith. Star Trek director JJ Abrams’s studio, Bad Robot, has signed on to produce.
The film will take place decades before the 2009 Star Trek movie, according to Deadline. The project will be an origin story and expand the Star Trek universe. Toby Haynes is known for his work on the Star Wars series Andor and Doctor Who. This new Star Trek film marks his first feature film, but not his first time writing about outer space adventures. Haynes wrote “USS Callister,” a Black Mirror episode heavily inspired by Star Trek. Smith is known for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and The Lego Batman Movie.
No cast has been named for this untitled project. Paramount was not immediately available for comment.
The franchise has struggled to return to theaters over the last several years. The last time a Star Trek film graced the silver screen was Star Trek Beyond in 2016, which starred Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldaña, John Cho, and Anton Yelchin. The film netted $343 million at the box office worldwide, the lowest of Abram’s three Star Trek installments.
In 2016, Paramount said the fourth and final adventure for Pine’s Enterprise crew, Star Trek 4, would also star Chris Hemsworth, who briefly played Kirk’s father in the 2009 film, but it never came to be. The movie suffered several difficulties getting off the ground for years due to scheduling delays and script disagreements that resulted in director Matt Shakman leaving the project in 2022. The film was initially designed to debut last December but still has no release date. However, Star Trek 4 is still in “active development,” according to Trek Movie.
In February of 2022, Abrams shocked fans and cast alike by saying a new film with Pine’s Enterprise crew was in the works and would begin filming by the end of the year, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Last November, Patrick Stewart spoke of a movie script, though it’s unknown whether the new Star Trek film is related. While Hayne’s film is set earlier than any Star Trek has gone before, Trek Movie ventures “Jean-Luc Picard, last seen in the 25th century of the Prime Universe, does not appear to fit with one set in the 23rd century of the Kelvin Universe.”
Paramount+ has long been the home for the Star Trek franchise, but in recent months has been purging its collection. In January, the streamer removed all ten original franchise films from its platform, which Max now hosts. Netflix adopted Star Trek: Prodigy in December after Paramount canceled the animated series during production of its second season.