Editorial Staff
It’s been more than a few months since Paramount announced a new “Star Trek” film, one that would see Chris Hemsworth join the cast as (Jimmy’s pop) George Kirk, but precious little has been heard about the flick since.
Out promoting “Thor Ragnarok”, actor Karl Urban – who plays ‘Bones’ in the recent series of “Star Trek” films – tells Screen Crush that he’s heard sweet-ass nothing about the film.
“You know as much as I do, my friend”, he told the site. “Listen, we’d all love to make another Star Trek movie. That’s absolutely certain. But if we don’t get that opportunity then I’m really happy to have ended on such a good note. We had such a wonderful time shooting Star Trek Beyond. It was an amazing experience – and we’re all still grieving over the fact that it was the last time that we got to shoot with Anton [Yelchin]. We’re all like a family. It won’t be the same without him”.
What’s the hold up, then?
One might suggest that the new small-screen take on Gene Roddenberry’s classic, “Star Trek : Discovery”, has plonked a cow in the middle of the “Trek” movie series’ road – since it’s telling a different yarn and has little to no connect with the Bad Robot run of “Trek” – but with decent ratings and reasonable reviews for the CBS series Paramount should probably feel reassured that there’s promise in another “Trek” movie.
Unfortunately the last flick in the franchise, “Star Trek : Beyond”, despite being a ripper film, didn’t do that much biz at the box office so Paramount might be a little gushy to press go on the film yet because of it’s lackluster performance. They need to look less at the product itself and more on how they rolled that one out, and what they pinned it against at the box office, though. In a quieter window, it might have been bigger.
There’s also deciding how to deal with the loss of Yelchin, who played Chekov in the previous three films. While the writer’s room on the movie might have come up with a couple of scenarios on how they can explain the late, great actor’s absence from hereon-out, it’s gotta be a hard task putting together a “Star Trek” movie without one of the main players. Very hard. Daunting, in fact. And no, producer JJ Abrams insists they won’t be recasting.
I, for one, hope it’s only a matter of time before the Enterprise returns to the multiplex but totally get why it might take a little longer than what we might like it to.
