10 years is a long time, and I’m angry about how Star Trek wasted the last decade by not producing a new movie starring Chris Pine and his USS Enterprise cast. J.J. Abrams successfully rebooted Star Trek in 2009, and followed it up with two more films, 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness and 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. A decade later, Star Trek 4 not only never happened but was canceled by Paramount Skydance.
It’s baffling how Star Trek‘s TV franchise thrived on Paramount+ for the last decade while Paramount Pictures couldn’t get its act together to produce Star Trek 4. Although every Star Trek TV series on Paramount+ is now canceled, at its peak, there were five Star Trek streaming shows, plus the made-for-streaming movie, Star Trek: Section 31. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was the sixth and last new Paramount+ show executive produced by Alex Kurtzman.
Meanwhile, Star Trek’s movie division wasn’t just dormant, but it was a black comedy of errors. Multiple directors came aboard Star Trek 4, only to quit over ‘creative differences.’ There was apparently no vision for Star Trek 4, and no Captain guiding the ship to mount another Star Trek motion picture for the big screen.
The last 10 years with no Star Trek 4 was a complete waste, not just of time, but of a stellar cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, and Sofia Boutella.
Star Trek Wasted Chris Pine’s USS Enterprise Cast For The Last 10 Years
J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movie cast was a miracle, and it’s infuriating that they have not only been in drydock for the last 10 years, but now they have been cut loose entirely because Paramount canceled Star Trek 4. Before Star Trek (2009), it was considered, if not impossible, then ill-advised to recast Star Trek: The Original Series‘ iconic characters.
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Star Trek (2009) was, and continues to be, astounding for how impeccably it was cast. Chris Pine distilled William Shatner’s bravado as Captain James T. Kirk. Zachary Quinto brought Spock’s inner turmoil to the forefront. Karl Urban absolutely nailed Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy’s irascibility. Star Trek (2009)’s casting wonders allowed Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to also successfully recast TOS‘ characters.
Despite Chris Pine and his fellow actors continuously expressing their desire to return to the Starship Enterprise, nothing came of the multiple attempts to launch Star Trek 4. Instead, all fans got were news reports of directors coming aboard, then quitting, and promises of new scripts being written that amounted to nothing.
In November 2025, Paramount Skydance canceled Star Trek 4 entirely, in favor of a reported new Star Trek movie being developed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein that will have no ties to previous Star Trek. While this feels like a mercy killing of Star Trek 4 after 10 years, it’s also a maddening squandering of a fantastic cast that the moviegoing public already thought highly of.
Star Trek 4 Could Have Been Great
The thing is, Star Trek 4 could have been great. There were different incarnations of Star Trek 4 that were abandoned, but they all sounded like they had the potential to be something special. Director S.J. Clarkson’s take on Star Trek 4 would have had Captain Kirk team up with his father, Lieutenant George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth). That gimmicky idea has merit just to see Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth share the screen as father and son.
Then there is Quentin Tarantino’s abandoned Star Trek 4, which would have been an R-rated gangster picture based on the Star Trek: The Original Series episode, “A Piece of the Action.” Tarantino exited when he decided he didn’t want Star Trek to be his 10th and final movie as a director, but Quentin’s Star Trek 4 would have been such an unusual departure for the franchise that it would have been a must-see.
Chris Pine’s take on Captain Kirk entering middle age would have been fascinating.
In the decade since Star Trek Beyond, Zoe Saldana won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Emilia Perez, which would have given Star Trek 4 extra prestige. The Starship Enterprise actors being 10 years older would also have benefited Star Trek 4. After three movies centering on his youthful bravado, Chris Pine’s take on Captain Kirk entering middle age would have been fascinating.
Under different circumstances, ten years would have been enough time for Paramount to produce not just Star Trek 4, but also 5 and 6. There could have been an entire trilogy of new Star Trek movies during the decade. It remains to be seen if Paramount’s plan to launch new Star Trek movies will amount to anything different from the nothing of the past 10 years.
Creative issues, budgetary concerns, and other factors led to Star Trek 4 never being produced and finally canceled. Yet it’s hard to argue that the Star Trek movie franchise hasn’t been mismanaged by Paramount, and it will always be a sore spot for me, personally, that we lost an entire decade of Star Trek movies with nothing to show for it.
- Created by
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Gene Roddenberry
- First Episode Air Date
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September 8, 1966
- Cast
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William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Deforest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Wil Wheaton, Avery Brooks, Nana Visitor, Rene Auberjonois, Alexander Siddig, Cirroc Lofton, Armin Shimerman, Colm Meaney, Terry Farrell, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Jeri Ryan, Robert Duncan McNeill, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Garrett Wang, Jolene Blalock, Connor Trinneer, Dominic Keating, Scott Bakula, Linda Park, John Billingsley, Anthony Montgomery, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho, Chris Hemsworth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sonequa Martin-Green, Mary Wiseman, Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Wilson Cruz, Oyin Oladejo, Emily Coutts, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn, Michelle Yeoh
- TV Show(s)
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Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Short Treks, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
