It's been the better part of a decade since the last "Star Trek" film hit the big screen in 2016. Fans dying to see what happens next in the Kelvin timeline have gradually felt their hopes slipping away as rumors of the next installment — including scuttlebutt about an R-rated Quentin Tarantino "Star Trek" film — keep failing to pan out. But according to Variety, Paramount has confirmed plans to move forward with the Kelvin timeline's "final chapter" — and that's just the beginning of the good news for Trekkies. There's reportedly a second feature "Trek" film in the works that's even closer to pre-production. The studio says this film will prove fundamental to the "Star Trek" canon by helping establish the primary timeline's origin story.
The emphasis on the second project's relationship to the primary timeline gives fans even more insight into a storyline hinted at by Deadline in January 2024, when sources teased a tightly guarded plot that would be set decades before the events of the 2009 "Star Trek" movie. Like the Kelvin timeline films, it will be produced by J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions. On track to write it is Seth Grahame-Smith, who penned "Dark Shadows," "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," and "The Lego Batman Movie."
Even more promising is who Paramount brought on to direct the film: Toby Haynes, a director whose resume includes "Andor," "Sherlock," a handful of the very best "Doctor Who" episodes from the Eleventh Doctor's tenure, and the critically lauded "Black Mirror" take on "Star Trek," "U.S.S. Callister." Insiders told Variety the origin film will be in preproduction by the end of 2024.
Even more Trek films could be in the works
The origin film is just one piece of Paramount's big plans to continue growing the "Star Trek" franchise in the coming years, which also include a push for more television movies, starting with the long-awaited "Section 31" story starring Michelle Yeoh. A look at the fandom-divisive darker side of Starfleet that first showed up in the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Inquisition," the film will have a decidedly spy-fi flavor that Yeoh compared to "”Mission: Impossible' in space" when speaking with Variety.
With filming already wrapped on the "Section 31" movie, executive producer Alex Kurtzman is more than ready to consider making even more streaming "Star Trek" films. Up for consideration is a follow-up to the "Picard" series. And with all of the "Star Trek" stories currently in production beginning with the 32nd-century-set young adult series "Starfleet Academy," which is currently in its planning phase, who knows where the franchise could be headed?
