New Star Trek movie to be penned by Kalinda Vazquez

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

I love Star Trek – every series, every movie, it all has a place in my heart – so I'm always eager to gobble up any piece of Star Trek news that comes across my desk. While the long-running franchise has been thriving on the small-screen with numerous shows in development, the same can't be said for the big-screen side of the franchise. Since the release of Star Trek Beyond in 2016, Paramount can't seem to get another film off the ground, but Deadline has now reported that a new Star Trek movie is in the works that will be penned by Kalinda Vazquez.

Deadline's insiders say that this "is a blind deal for an original movie that [Vazquez] hatched," which seems to imply to me that this project likely won't be a continuation of the J.J. Abrams reboot series; That said, J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot production company will be producing the film. Kalinda Vazquez isn't a stranger to the Star Trek franchise, as she's penned episodes of Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Short Treks, as well as served as a consulting producer on Discovery. Not only that, but Vazquez was also named after a character from an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series (Kelinda in By Any Other Name, for those who are interested). Vazquez has also penned episodes of Fear the Walking Dead, Once Upon a Time, Nikita, Human Target, and Prison Break. It was also announced last month that she would be teaming up with Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin for an HBO series adaptation of Roger Zelazny's sci-fi novel Roadmarks.

Since Star Trek Beyond was released, there have been several attempts at getting another Star Trek movie off the ground, including one written by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) that was based on an idea by Quentin Tarantino. Noah Hawley (Fargo) was also developing another Star Trek project, but said last year that Paramount had put the film on hold. While it remains to be seen whether or not Kalinda Vazquez's project will get any further than the others, it would be nice to see Star Trek back on the big-screen, especially if it has a fresh idea with new characters.