Star Trek is going back to the big screen with a bold premise from an exciting creative team. If you’re still waiting for Star Trek 4, don’t worry—this is different and changes nothing according to Variety!
Toby Haynes and Seth Grahame-Smith have signed on to helm the project as director and writer, respectively, per Deadline. That combo is enough to be excited about, as far as I’m concerned. They are both experienced in science fiction and good at giving something familiar a loving twist.
Grahame-Smith became famous for rupture fiction novels like Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. His film work includes The Lego Batman Movie and Dark Shadows. Haynes is best known today for directing six episodes of Andor, the mature, radical, critically acclaimed Star Wars series. Before that, however, he was already shaping nerd culture as a director on shows like Sherlock, Being Human, Doctor Who, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and Black Mirror.
That last show is the most relevant, and most exciting to me personally. Haynes directed “U.S.S. Callister,” a Star Trek-inspired episode of Black Mirror (pictured above) starring Jesse Plemons and Cristin Milioti that skewered toxic masculinity in the science fiction genre and fan space. I’m so excited to see what he would do with an actual Trek story. If you’re aware of the bad tropes, you can’t repeat them … right?
We don’t know much about this new Star Trek movie and I have questions!
As far as we know, the script is not completed and there isn’t a cast. All we know is roughly when and what it’s about. It will be set decades before James Tiberius Kirk stepped foot on the U.S.S. Enterprise. I think it’s safe to say that the film won’t connect to the current run of Star Trek shows like Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, Discovery, and obviously Picard.
We do know that it will serve as an “origin story” of sorts. What does that mean? We can only speculate! Is it the origin of Starfleet or the Federation of Planets? Star Trek takes place in a world where many of the human conflicts that pervade our society, like racism and sexism, have dissipated. It’s optimistic and aspirational. While I’m not sure I want to see a version of Star Trek that takes place in a pessimistic world (read: one that resembles our own) I will try to trust the vision.
And, as stated above, the folks at Paramount are still developing the “final” chapter of the Star Trek film series starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. The Kelvinverse (Star Trek, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Star Trek: Beyond) lives to die another day!
(featured image: Netflix)
