Paramount is moving forward with Star Trek 4 and is working to bring Chris Pine and other cast members back. Thanks to J.J. Abrams, the Star Trek franchise received a big-screen reboot in 2009 that proved to be quite successful. Paramount moved quickly to make two sequels, Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond. The trilogy revolved around Pine's James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto's Spock. However, Star Trek Beyond's box office performance left the franchise's future in an uncertain spot.
After working on various ideas for new Star Trek movie ideas - which included films from Quentin Tarantino and a possible reboot from Noah Hawley - the Kevlin Timeline series regained favor with the studio. Paramount and Abrams brought WandaVision director Matt Shakman aboard to helm the next movie. At the time, it was unclear exactly what direction Shakman's Star Trek movie would take. Cast members previously associated with the Abrams trilogy remained hopeful that they could return, though.
According to a report from Deadline, Paramount is now in talks with Chris Pine and many other cast members to return for Star Trek 4. The outlet notes that Pine is the only actor to already have started talking to the studio about his return. However, Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho, and Simon Pegg are all expected to begin their own contract negotiations shortly and return. Paramount hopes to have Star Trek 4 filming before the end of 2022 following a new draft of the script being completed by Josh Friedman and Cameron Squires.
As long as deals close for each of the main cast members, Star Trek 4 will be an opportunity for each of them to play their characters once more. The movie will be without Anton Yelchin following his tragic passing prior to Star Trek Beyond's release. It was previously said that Pavel Chekov would not be recast if the franchise continued. There is also no word on if Sofia Boutella will return as Jaylah, who debuted in Star Trek Beyond and was set up to be part of Kirk's next crew. It is also unclear if the new iteration of Star Trek 4 still incorporates plans for Chris Hemsworth to return as Kirk's father.
In any case, news of Star Trek 4's main cast members' expected returns should be welcomed information from fans. While Paramount has brought back Star Trek's thriving TV presence, the movie side of the franchise has been a bit of a dark cloud filled with a rotating door of different projects. Now that Star Trek 4 is making positive movement to be the next installment of the movie series, excitement should start to build to see Pine's Kirk, Quinto's Spock, and others return.
Source: Deadline