It’s been around six years since Chris Pine (41) as James T. Kirk last ventured into galaxies that no human had ever seen before. Since then, the future of the reboot series that JJ Abrams (55) launched in 2009 with “Star Trek” and found two sequels in “Star Trek Into Darkness” (2013) and “Star Trek Beyond” (2016) was in the limbo. However, as the US industry website “Deadline” claims to have found out, the Paramount film studio is now working flat out on a fourth part, in which Pine will once again be in charge of the fortunes of the USS Enterprise as Starfleet Captain.
According to the report, the plan is for production to start by the end of this year. Accordingly, Paramount is currently in negotiations with Pine, talks with his original crew are to follow, i.e.: Zachary Quinto (44) as Spock, Zoe Saldana (43) as Lieutenant Uhura, Karl Urban (49) as Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy, John Cho (49) as Sulu and Simon Pegg (52) as Scotty.
No Yelchin and no Tarantino
However, it is with a heavy heart that fans have to do without one star of the new “Star Trek” series: Anton Yelchin, who played crew member Pavel Chekov in all three predecessors, died in a tragic accident in 2016 at the age of just 27. Shortly after Yelchin’s death, producer Abrams announced that out of respect for the deceased, the role would not be recast in a potential fourth installment.
A director is already on the hook for the as yet untitled flick. Matt Shakman (46) is to set the fourth adventure of the Enterprise in the new Kelvin timeline on course. This would probably also stop the rumors for the time being, according to which director Quentin Tarantino (58) was last seen as a hot candidate for a new “Star Trek” film.
(pcs/spot)