Oh, what optimistic times the summer of 2016 was. Donald Trump wasn’t President yet, and Paramount Pictures were so certain that “Star Trek Beyond” would be a hit, that the week it opened they announced a followup. Well, we took a lot of things for granted that year — “Star Trek Beyond” woefully underperformed and Hillary Clinton lost. And just as the latter probably won’t run for the White House again, “Star Trek 4” also seems like a distant possibility.
The plans for the proposed movie were bold, bringing Chris Hemsworth‘s Father Kirk into the story — even though he’s dead in that timeline — and having him roll with Chris Pine‘s Captain Kirk. So, some kind of “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”-ish play with time travel? Probably. But again, nothing has been heard about it since, so we don’t even though the status of the script by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. Hell, don’t even ask Thor himself, because no one is blowing up his cell either about the movie.
“I don’t know [the status of the movie]. It’s a reminder to call J.J. [Abrams] and ask the same question because I haven’t heard any updates on it either,” Hemsworth told IGN.
Obviously, the big elephant in the room is Quentin Tarantino‘s brewing “Star Trek” movie — which is being produced by Abrams, incidentally — which doing a franchise first with an R-rating, and has Mark L. Smith (“The Revenant”) writing the script. My guess is “Star Trek 4” is dead in the water, or at least a long distance backup plan in case this Tarantino effort never happens (which is a very distinct possibility).
You can see Hemsworth next in “12 Strong” which opens on January 19th.