Paramount Pictures has officially pulled an untitled Star Trek movie from its December 2023 release schedule. The film was set to be the fourth instalment in the reboot franchise, which is, of course, based on the iconic TV series created by Gene Roddenberry.
The news comes just a few weeks after Wandavision's Matt Shakman dropped out of directing the project, the filmmaker instead helming Marvel's upcoming Fantastic Four flick. At the time, Paramount said in a statement: "Matt Shakman is an incredibly talented filmmaker, and we regret the timing didn't align for him to direct our upcoming Star Trek film. We are grateful for his many contributions, are excited about the creative vision of this next chapter and look forward to bringing it to audiences all around the world."
Star Trek 4 has been a long time in development, with fans and lead actor Chris Pine backing the continuation of the series since Star Trek Beyond, released back in 2016. The latest script for Star Trek 4 had been penned by Josh Friedman and Cameron Squires, working from a draft from Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, and was expected to reunite the Enterprise crew first introduced in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek in 2009: Pine as Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, Karl Urban as Bones, Zoe Saldaña as Uhura, John Cho as Sulu, and Simon Pegg as Scotty.
While we may not see that line-up in their Starfleet uniforms again, there are plenty of other titles Trekkies can enjoy – and look forward to – right now. Star Trek: Discovery's fifth season is still set to release in early 2023, with Picard gearing up to air its third and final chapter around the same time.
There's Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, too, which has already wrapped production on its second season. While we wait for the next Kelvin timeline adventure, check out our list of best sci-fi movies of all time.
