Noah Hawley reveals to a SXSW attendee that his cancelled Star Trek movie would've starred Cate Blanchett if it had moved forward. Hawley first rose to popularity in the world of television as the creator, executive producer and primary writer of FX's Fargo adaptation, which won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries in its debut season and has since garnered 113 award nominations and 32 wins across its four seasons. He went on to sign an exclusive production deal with the cable network, which extended to the acclaimed three-season Marvel series Legion and the upcoming Alien series.
Hawley has made multiple attempts to break into filmmaking over the years, beginning with penning the script for The Alibi and being tapped to pen the script for an unknown installment in Universal's scrapped Dark Universe and writing and directing the scrapped Doctor Doom movie at 20th Century Fox following Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox. Following the release of his critical and commercial bomb directorial debut, Lucy in the Sky, Hawley was brought on by Paramount to write and direct a fourth Star Trek movie set in J.J. Abram's Kelvin timeline, though would be centered on a new crew. This project would ultimately be canceled by the studio in late 2020 and now the Emmy winner is sharing new details of what could've been for the film.
While attending the filmmaker's panel at the South by Southwest Film Festival, Fangoria contributor Brandon Wainerdi shared new details regarding Noah Hawley's cancelled Star Trek movie. Wainerdi revealed he asked the Fargo creator about what could've been in the film, with Hawley revealing that his project would've starred Cate Blanchett. No further details were shared as to who the two-time Oscar winner would've portrayed in the cancelled Star Trek movie.
Though the nature of her role in the project is unknown, the possibility of Blanchett starring in Hawley's cancelled Star Trek movie may come as a disappointment that it never came to be. Given the film was set to focus on a crew separate from Chris Pine's Kirk and the U.S.S. Enterprise, it's possible the Oscar winner would've been the captain for a new Starfleet ship within the Kelvin timeline. Blanchett wouldn't have been the first female captain in the franchise, with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home featuring an unnamed woman while both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine featured a multitude of said captains and Voyager being memorably led by Kate Mulgrew's Kathryn Janeway.
That being said, Noah Hawley's cancelled Star Trek movie could've seen Cate Blanchett return to the villainous side of things for the space-faring adventure. Blanchett notably returned to live-action blockbuster filmmaking for Thor: Ragnarok as primary antagonist Hela, for which she received rave reviews for, and has played a number of other villains over the years, including Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull's Irina Spalko. Though Hawley's Star Trek movie never got to be, audiences can at least look forward to Pine and co. returning for a proper fourth installment in the Kelvin timeline in the near future.
Source: Brandon Wainerdi/Twitter