Simon Pegg recently explained that Star Trek 4 has one big obstacle to overcome in order for it to be made. With no new Star Trek media for four years, J.J. Abrams brought the iconic crew of Star Trek: The Original Series back to the big screen with J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek. The reboot film reintroduced Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban), Uhura (Zoe Saldaña), Sulu (John Cho), Chekov (Anton Yelchin), and Scotty (Pegg) to a new audience. However, to preserve the original Prime timeline of the Star Trek universe, Abrams created an alternate timeline — dubbed the Kelvin Timeline — which freed the team up to create new stories while revisiting familiar characters.
The 2009 Star Trek proved popular with audiences and spawned two sequels, Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond. However, production on Star Trek 4 has been delayed frequently over the years following the initial Kelvin films' poor reception. Initially, the sequel was planned to start production shortly after Beyond. A year later, Quentin Tarantino put his hat into the ring with a potential Star Trek script, but plans for that project also stalled. Finally, July 2021 saw Paramount announce Matt Shakman as the Star Trek 4 director, with a planned release date in June 2023. In February 2022, it was reported that Pine and the original cast were in talks to return, but none of their involvement has been confirmed.
While speaking at FedCon (via Trek Movie), Pegg explained that Star Trek 4 has one big hurdle to overcome before it can finally be made. The star prefaced his comments by saying that he doesn't know the when or if the sequel will go into production, but detailed that one of the biggest reasons for the lack of a confirmed plan is due to the conflicting schedules of the ensemble cast. Read what Pegg told the audience at FedCon below.
"A fourth movie is planned. Obviously, the big problem with that is that there are a group of actors who are all busy and all have things going on. We have to find a moment when we can all be together… As soon as they can figure out our moment we can we could all be together, I’m sure we’ll do it. I’d love to get back together with those guys ... It’s bittersweet for us now because we lost Anton [Yelchin] and that really, it’s hard. I think we’ll miss him when we’re all together. We will feel that he’s not there. But any chance I get to hang with those guys I’ll always take. They’ve become like family over the last 12 years. So no one’s being coy. It’s not like we’re keeping secrets. We’re just waiting for the right moment for all to coalesce. So stay tuned."
Pegg's comments certainly make sense, since many of the potential Star Trek 4's core cast are prominent actors who are currently in high demand. Pine is a well sought after leading man who has multiple films lined up across the next few years. Saldaña is a major player within the MCU as Gamora, but is also one of the central characters in the upcoming Avatar 2 and its sequels. Meanwhile, Pegg himself has a major role in the next two Mission Impossible films, which may also conflict with the upcoming Star Trek film.
In the age of cinematic and television franchises, actors often commit to a project that may end up being a multi-decade affair. For instance, Hemsworth, who was originally slated to appear in Star Trek 4 as Kirk's father, made his debut appearance as Thor in 2011 and will reprise his role once again this July, 11 years later, for the MCU's Thor: Love and Thunder. Although production on Star Trek 4 has struggled in the past few years, this current attempt appears to be the most promising. However, as Pegg points out, if the cast cannot find a break in their busy schedules, the film may be doomed before it even began.
Source: Trek Movie