Following the underwhelming box office numbers for Star Trek Beyond, the film franchise of Paramount’s long-running sci-fi universe has struggled to find a path forward and while Legion‘s Noah Hawley signed on to write and direct a fourth film in Abrams’ Kelvin Timeline, it appears the project has stalled at the studio, according to Deadline.
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Emma Watts, previously an exec at Fox, recently was appointed to Paramount Motion Picture Group is currently reassessing the forthcoming film slate for the studio, namely the state of the Star Trek film franchise, which has been up in the air for the past four years as various projects were put into development beginning with a fourth film helmed by S.J. Clarkson before being shelved due to cast contracting issues, an R-rated film helmed by Quentin Tarantino penned by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) and Hawley’s project.
Sources report that Hawley’s film was actually set to bring in a new cast of characters rather than bringing back the Kelvin cast and would see the protagonists race to cure a deadly virus and, though Paramount hasn’t confirmed anything as of yet, given the world’s current situation it may be an explanation as to why his project is on hold. Tarantino unofficially dropped off the Smith-penned project earlier this year but stated it would most likely be made at some point, with the story set be based on a classic Star Trek episode set earthbound in a ’30s gangster setting.
Both projects are reportedly on hold at the studio, but the latter is being considered a viable option to carry the franchise forward, seen by the studio as a spinoff akin to the X-Men spin-off Logan and may move forward with that plan while they figure out how to move forward with the Kelvin Timeline or even one of the original timelines.
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With the CBS All Access series Discovery and Picard proving the franchise is still successful for the studio, it makes sense Paramount would rather take its time to move forward with another Star Trek film rather than rush one out in a similar vein to Beyond.
(Photo Credit: Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic)
