The Star Trek universe giveth, and the Star Trek universe taketh away. Hot on the heels of the announcement that the Kelvinverse timeline of feature films was finally dead dead comes the news that Paramount has a brand new Trek movie in the works—and one that sounds like something fans haven’t gotten the chance to see in far too long.
Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley have been tapped to write, produce, and direct a brand new Star Trek film for the studio. Per Deadline, who first broke the story, the forthcoming installment will offer a completely new take on the franchise universe, unburdened by any sort of connections to current television series, previous films, or other projects that may or may not have sputtered out at various points in the development pipeline. (Sorry to Noah Hawley and Quentin Tarantino, I guess.) Virtually nothing is known about its plot, but the report suggests the film will likely introduce new characters to the franchise, though we don’t technically know if that will be in primary or supporting roles.
Goldstein and Daley have already proven themselves capable writers who can put fresh spins on preexisting IPs. The pair wrote Spider-Man: Homecoming, and though they’ve only directed three films, those include Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and the wildly underrated Game Night (“Oh, no… he died!”). All of this probably gives us a pretty good idea of how the pair might approach tackling the world of Trek, and I think we all have to admit that it’s probably a good idea to get some fresh eyes on this franchise.
With the television universe busy slotting various series into gaps of existing canon (waiting on that Star Trek: Year One announcement any day now), it’s well past time to let the film side of things, well… boldly go. Tell different kinds of stories! Take some risks! It’s a big, bold, beautiful universe out there, and surely there’s got to be some pocket of it that doesn’t care at all about any singular event from James T. Kirk’s personal timeline.
