Chris Pine says you can’t make a cerebral Star Trek film in 2016

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

When the first trailer for STAR TREK BEYOND hit, fans were a little worried that, like the previous effort, this film's focus may be too much on the action and not enough on the story. Now, co-writer Simon Pegg has assured fans this isn't the case with BEYOND, but for those of you craving something along the lines of THE MOTION PICTURE, you might want to lower those expectations. In a recent interview with SFX, Kirk himself, Chris Pine, doesn't seem to think Trek could return to its more cerebral roots. At least, in this day and age. Check out what he had to say about it below!

You can’t make a cerebral Star Trek in 2016. It just wouldn’t work in today’s marketplace. You can hide things in there – STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS has crazy, really demanding questions and themes, but you have to hide it under the guise of wham-bam explosions and planets blowing up. It’s very, very tricky. The question that our movie poses is “Does the Federation mean anything?” And in a world where everybody’s trying to kill one another all of the time, that’s an important thing. Is working together important? Should we all go our separate ways? Does being united against something mean anything?

So what do you think? Could a TREK film like THE MOTION PICTURE or even THE VOYAGE HOME be made today? I'm certainly not opposed to some sweet TREK action, but an aspect I appreciated about the TV show was that it could slip into the guise of all sorts of different genres. Perhaps the new Trek show will continue to tackle those issues, leaving the films to deliver the big explosions and the space bikes. In any event, I hope there's enough in BEYOND for fans to chew on!

STAR TREK BEYOND opens in theaters on July 22, 2016.