Star Trek Prequel Film in the Works

Movies

The final frontier is being explored from multiple directions. Deadline exclusively reports that Paramount is developing a Star Trek prequel movie that will take place “decades before the 2009 Star Trek film that rebooted the franchise.” Toby Haynes, who directed six episodes of the Star Wars TV show Andor, will direct the film, which will be written by Seth Grahame-Smith (The Lego Batman Movie, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Dark Shadows). Bad Robot, JJ Abrams’ production company, will produce the film. Deadline says that this will not take the place of Star Trek 4, the next installment of the Kelvin Timeline series, which is still in active development.

Paramount is certainly leaning into the franchise aspect of Star Trek. According to the Deadline piece, the Paramount+ shows Picard and Strange New Worlds are successful, so they’re looking to branch out into films as well. I’m not sure how well that will work out for them; Star Trek is a niche franchise, and so far, all of the movies featured the crews of the original series or Star Trek: The Next Generation, and not all of them were hits. Star Trek Beyond was a big enough flop that the next film in that series has been in development hell for years, partly because Paramount has been struggling to figure out how to bring the budget down. I do like the director behind this prequel, though; I haven’t seen Andor, but Toby Haynes also directed an outstanding episode of Sherlock called “The Reichenbach Fall,” which was the finale of season 2. I find him more interesting than anyone who’s come and gone on Star Trek 4. Seth Grahame-Smith means less to me because I haven’t seen anything he’s written, but people seem to enjoy The Lego Batman Movie; how that portends for a Star Trek film, I have no idea. But Paramount seems determined to make Star Trek work, come hell or high water. (Is that a Chris Pine joke? I’ll let you decide.)