The Next ‘Star Trek’ Will Be An ‘Origin’ For the Whole Franchise

It’s been eight years and counting since the last Star Trek film debuted in theaters, 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. While Star Trek is pumping out tons of TV shows on Paramount+, it’s still not clear when we might see Trek back in movie theaters.

A new article in Variety on the state of Star Trek indicates though, that the film project that is furthest along in development over at Paramount Pictures at the moment would be “an origin story of sorts for the main timeline of the entire franchise.” That project is being written by Seth Grahame-Smith and would be directed by Andor and Black Mirror’s Toby Haynes.

They quote unnamed sources who claim that movie is “on track to start preproduction by the end of the year.”

READ MORE: The Reason Quentin Tarantino Didn’t Make His Star Trek Movie

The same report notes that this project is “further along” than the long-discussed fourth film in the “Kelvin” Star Trek series, the reboot/legacyquel movie series with Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Mr. Spock, and Zoe Saldana as Lt. Uhura. Paramount has announced and/or developed countless sequels for this Star Trek crew since the release of Star Trek Beyond — including a time-travel story that would have featured Kirk going into the past to have an adventure with his father, played by Chris Hemsworth.

That movie never came together, nor did any of the other Star Trek film projects in the last eight years, including one that Quentin Tarantino worked on for a while. So I would not fault you if you believe we will never see this “origin story” movie either. As for what it could be the origin of within Star Trek … I’m not sure. The earliest days of warp technology were featured in the film Star Trek: First Contact. Maybe something about the founding of the Federation?