What You Should (Really) Expect From Star Trek 4
Setting expectations as we head back to the Kelvin universe…
It’s officially official: Star Trek is heading back to the Kelvin universe.
Maybe.
Star Trek’s big screen adventures screeched to a halt following 2016’s underrated Beyond, a movie that unfortunately underperformed in a year that also marked the franchise’s 50th anniversary. Investors weren’t impressed, particularly in China, and talks of a forth outing featuring a timey-whimey adventure with Chris Hemsworth’s George Kirk soon fell apart quicker than that time the Enterprise encountered Idris Elba.
Since then much of the Kelvin universe cast have gone onto pastures new. Zoe Saldana cemented her position as a key member of the MCU in Guardians of the Galaxy. Chris Pine too has risen his profile, starring alongside Gal Gadot in two Wonder Woman movies. John Cho has remained nice and busy, recently starring in Netflix’s anticipated but quickly cancelled adaptation of Cowboy Bebop. This, just to name a few.
Meanwhile Star Trek has stagnated. On the big screen for sure, projects on the small screen are plentiful, although most have divided and already fractured fanbase, and publicly accessible metrics don’t exactly paint the most profitable picture.
Rumours and threats of new movie projects have swirled for years, with a veritable who’s who of Hollywood big wigs and upcoming creators all throwing their names in the hat at one point or another. But none have made it past any sort of actual production, for reasons that we can only wildly speculate.
Fast-forward to 2022, and it might finally be happening. The smarty pants at Paramount have used analytics, numbers and actual feedback to establish that there is indeed a desire to see Pine and Co reunited on that shiny Apple store Enterprise bridge once more. Enough of a desire that it might actually be commercially viable. Hooray!
But, and it’s a big but. Before we warp back to the Kelvin universe there remain obstacles and things to be aware of that might dampen some early enthusiasm. I don’t want to be the party pooper, but I do think these things need to be addressed. To even things out I do have some early predictions and hopes as to the direction this potential movie could take, particularly if Paramount, you know, fancy actually making some money this time.
Beyond was a box office failure
This is the reason we’re still waiting for another Star Trek movie. Released during a busy summer slate in 2016 Beyond faced an uphill battle. Arriving three years after a divisive Into Darkness (which itself released a whole four years after 2009’s reboot), it’s been argued that too much time had passed and the franchise had lost momentum to other emerging properties. The high-profile defection of JJ Abrams to Star Wars didn’t help, nor did the hiring of The Fast and the Furious series’ Justin Lin as his replacement. The fanbase, fractured and much older at this point just didn’t respond as they did previously, and what ended up being a very passable entry into the franchise failed to ignite at the box office.
While fans were left disappointed, investors in China were left even more so, with partner studios purportedly losing millions due to poor performance in what was hoped would be a lucrative territory.
Star Trek 4 has only been announced
Despite what you’ve read, with many news outlets leading with headlines such as “Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto And The Crew To Return For A New Star Trek Film”, there is no confirmation that the main cast have actually signed to return for a fourth movie. The news was announced during Paramount’s big investor day, special events designed to attract new investors and improve share prices. Paramount has a history of doing this, most notably using public investor events to announce the aforementioned George Kirk team up that never happened.
The reports we’re seeing are all carefully designed to increase anticipation and drive engagement metrics, something Paramount can then use to appeal to potential investors after the event.
The original main cast are way more expensive now
Five years in showbiz is a long time and a lot of the original cast, most of whom were largely unknown upon their initial casting back in ’06 or ’07 have since gone on to develop into desirable, and mostly bankable names that would be attractive on a marquee for almost any production.
This is what tanked the Kelvin universe only a couple of years ago. Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth, now massive stars refused to take pay cuts to make the project happen. Now a lot has happened since then, the biggest being the decimation of the box office thanks in no small part to a global pandemic, so it’s very possible Trek’s superstars are now more open to renegotiation.
But the challenge remains. The rest of the cast are more expensive than they ever were before, despite high-profile costly Netflix flops.
And let’s say Paramount are able to reunite the cast. They’ll still need to secure a number of “guest” stars to act as villains and secondaries. It’s an expensive game, this movie-making business, and with investment still clearly being sought this is far from actually being a thing.
Again I’m not trying to be the pooper of people’s fun. We need all the fun we can get right now. As a lifelong Trekkie I’m hopeful this can actually happen. The Kelvin universe has had its ups and downs, yes, but it ultimately helped revitalise the fandom over a decade ago, and is the reason we’re getting more Star Trek right now. For better or for worse.
So with that in mind here are some predictions, some early thoughts on things I think we can expect from a potential Star Trek 4. Starting with another negative…
There’s no way Star Trek 4 arrives in 2023
Yeah, it’s not happening. Even if investment is secured in record time and all the actors sign on the dotted line, big budget movie productions take months, if not years to come to fruition. Star Trek, particularly the Bad Robot productions have a knack of being announced and then pushed back due to reshoots and special effects optimisation.
In any case, we’ve waited 5 years already. What’s another couple gonna hurt?
Expect the familiar
Nostalgia is all the rage at the moment, just look at Spider-Man’s box-office shattering performance from last year. Armed with decent story, bolstered by the returns of past iterations of the character the movie is well on course to beating AVATAR’s North American box office record. That’s insane.
Few other franchises boast the same kind of continuity as Star Trek, and with a large number of past performers (touch wood) still alive and active the opportunities to connect fans with beloved old favourites are seemingly endless.
Returning heroes?
Tragically one familiar face we won’t be seeing is Anton Yelchin, who passed away tragically just before the release of Beyond in 2016. Yelchin’s Chekov leaves a very large seat to fill, but we already have someone who can step up.
I’m of course referring to Sofia Boutella’s excellent Jaylah, who made her first Trek debut in Beyond. Bold, fierce and moral Jaylah was the standout of that movie with even its detractors admitting the character was a worthy addition to the franchise. It makes sense that this happens. Plus she’s probably cheap, which is great for Paramount!
Opening the universe
There once was a time where Star Trek was the franchise pioneering the shared universe. Now unfortunately Star Trek is playing catch up and looking to things that are proven to work with modern audiences and markets. If Trek introduced the shared universe the MCU inarguably perfected it, and is now in the middle of a very ambitious attempt to unite the entire Marvel catalogue. Movies. Legacy Franchises. TV. Comic Books. Everything.
The introduction of the Kelvin universe was controversial to say the least. As was the debut of Discovery in 2017. As has basically everything in the history of the damn franchise. What if Star Trek was to take a leaf out of Marvel’s playbook, and use this upcoming movie to unite not only the universe, but the franchise’s endlessly bickering tribes?
Imagine the scenes as Kirk and Spock come face to face with Michael Burnham and Saru, who together seek out guidance from Admirals Picard and Janeway to combat Benedict Cumberbatch’s universe-splitting Khan (hey, he’s doing it as Doctor Strange, so why not here?). Imagine cameos from the likes of a now Captain Harry Kim, an adult Ensign Wildman, all watched on proudly by an elderly President Archer, and even Benjamin Sisko from the realm of the Prophets. We could even go full ‘Into The Spider-Verse’, with appearances from the gangs of Lower Decks, Prodigy and even Lieutenant Arex, all in their original animated forms.
Like the great Zeph once said:
“Why not?”
The fans want to be happy, and with modern blockbusters trending towards these big nostalgic mashups it would make sense for Star Trek to, adopt this crowd-pleasing and hopefully uniting strategy.
And Paramount want to make a mountain of cash, and this just screams “mountains of cash” to me.
In any case, we’re still some ways from Star Trek 4 hitting our screen. So let the speculation commence. And let’s try to have some fun with it.
