For the past couple of months, Trekkies have been wondering whether the Star Trek 4 movie with the Kelvin timeline cast is still happening especially after the exit of Matt Shakman as the director and Paramount Pictures removing it from their release calendar on their future film slate.
Since we haven't heard any updates about the project, there are speculations that the film might no longer happen. However, there have also been rumors that J.J. Abrams will take over the directorial duty for the film after serving the position in the first two films.
Speaking with Collider, Shakman revealed that the fourth film is still in the works. While he didn't provide any details, he claimed that the version that Paramount and Bad Robot are working on today is "a version of what I have been working on for the time that I was involved."
The project's former director also revealed that he was aiming for a tentpole scale for the film since the visual effects involving the spaceships require a higher budget.
"In our day and age now, any time you go to space in a movie it's expensive. When you're flying around in the Enterprise, even if you're going to land and be in one place for a long time, it's still pretty expensive," he explained.
Shakman also praised Abrams for finding a larger audience when he directed the first two films even though he is not a Star Trek fan.
"I think that one of the things that J.J. has done so well is that, he'll be the first to admit, he didn't grow up being a giant Star Trek fan even though he's a fan now. But he was a huge Star Wars fan," he added.
"So I think in rebooting it with Chris Pine and Zoe [Saldaña] and Zach [Quinto], he brought a little bit of Star Wars to it, which I think helped expand its audience, in terms of the scope and the scale of it and the energy of it."
The WandaVision director concluded, "I think that that certainly is the goal is to find more and more of an audience for Star Trek. But I am, like you, a huge fan of that, and it was a real shame that I couldn't make the timing work on that."
It is great to hear that the film is still in the works despite the lack of updates that we've been hearing and the delay that it is having. It would be curious to see if the status will remain the same in the coming months and whether Paramount will finally move forward with it.
Also Read: Former Star Trek 4 Director Breaks Silence on His Exit
Explore new topics and discover content that's right for you!