Here we go again. Deadline has reported that Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot are looking to bring Star Trek back to the big-screen and have tapped WandaVision's Matt Shakman with directing the next Star Trek movie.
There aren't many details just yet, but Deadline has heard that this new Star Trek film will feature the return of the J.J. Abrams cast consisting of Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, Zachary Levi as Spock, Karl Urban as McCoy, Simon Pegg as Scotty, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, and John Cho as Sulu. (Deadline later omitted the involvement of the Abrams cast in an updated report, so it would seem their involvement isn't a sure thing at this point.) This new project has been scripted by Lindsey Beer (The Magic Order) and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel). With Matt Shakman helping to lead WandaVision to 23 Emmy Award nominations — including an Outstanding Directing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie nod for Shakman — this move could prove to be a big one for both Star Trek and Shakman. Deadline added that the director was fielding several major projects, but chose Star Trek over all the others. The studio is hoping to kick off production next spring and the film is already slated for a June 9, 2023 release.
Although the Star Trek franchise is thriving on the small-screen with plenty of projects set to roll out over the next few years, the same can't be said for the big-screen side of things. Despite numerous attempts, Paramount hasn't been able to get a Star Trek film off the ground since the release of Star Trek Beyond in 2016. One of the previous projects was based on an idea by Quentin Tarantino and written by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant). Noah Hawley (Fargo) was also developing another Star Trek project, but said last year that Paramount had put the film on hold. It was also reported this March that Star Trek: Discovery's Kalinda Vazquez was penning the script for new Star Trek movie based on an original idea, but it's not clear what the status of that project is at this time.