Star Trek XV

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Star Trek XIV is the planned next Star Trek film, following 2016's Star Trek Beyond. Several different treatments have been developed since Star Trek Beyond. As of November 2019, two different projects remain in active development: one based on an idea by Quentin Tarantino, and another to be written by Noah Hawley.

From 2016 to 2019, a script centering on James T. Kirk meeting his father George Kirk was in various stages of development, before ultimately being abandoned. For further details, see Star Trek 4.

Tarantino proposal

In December 2017, it was reported that Quentin Tarantino had pitched an idea for a Star Trek film to J.J. Abrams. [1] Tarantino has said he sees the reboot "as an opportunity to expand on those old stories, rather than change them," though he added it would be challenging giving all of the cast something to do in a film. [2] It was later announced that the film would be written by Mark L. Smith, based on Tarantino's idea. [3]

In April 2018, Zachary Quinto commented that he believed that there were at least three scripts in development for the film, with Tarantino's being just one of them. [4] In the same month, he reiterated that Paramount Pictures wanted to make at least one more Star Trek film, implying that the aforementioned scripts could all be turned into films, but Paramount had to decide on the order. [5] During the same month, Abrams met with Tarantino to discuss the film. [6] At CinemaCon 2018, Paramount CEO Jim Gianopulos revealed the studio was working on two new Star Trek films. [7]

In June 2019, Tarantino confirmed in an interview with Empire that a draft script existed and the next step would be for him to evaluate it. He also stated that his movie would be rated R under the MPAA system. [8]

Ever since the initial 2017 announcement, little else about the Tarantino project has been forthcoming but on 22 July 2019 Tarantino lifted a tip of the veil in an interview given to MTV's Happy Sad Confused podcast series. [9] He stated at approximately 20:30 into the interview,

"I don't know how much I can say. The one thing I can say is it would deal with the Chris Pine timeline. Now, I still don't quite understand, and JJ [Abrams] can't explain it to me, and my editor has tried to explain it to me and I still don't get it... about something happened in the first movie that now kind of wiped the slate clean. I don't buy that. I don't like it. I don't appreciate it. I don't – fuck that... I want the whole series to have happened, it just hasn't happened yet. No, Benedict Cumberbatch, or whatever his name is, is not Khan, alright? Khan is Khan. And I told JJ, like, 'I don't understand this. I don't like it.' And then he was like, 'Ignore it! Nobody likes it. I don't understand it. Just do whatever you want. If you want it to happen the exact way it happens on the series, it can.'"

– Quentin Tarantino ([10])

Wanting to tell himself a "Guardian of Forever"-type story, Tarantino additionally stated in the same podcast that he was a huge fan of the Star Trek: The Original Series (the series he was referencing in the above quoted remark), especially of how William Shatner played Captain James T. Kirk, but also how he was "(...)actually intrigued by the JJ Abrams version of it is because I thought Chris Pine did a fantastic job not just playing Capt. Kirk but playing William Shatner's captain – he is William Shatner. He's not just another guy, he's William Shatner's Capt. Kirk. And it's literally, Zachary Quinto is literally Leonard Nimoy's – because they both have the same scene together – he's his Spock. They fucking nail it. They just nail it." [11] Incidentally, known for his fondness of dropping pop-culture references in his body of work, Tarantino had already dropped two Star Trek references in his 2003 film Kill Bill: Vol. 1, including one to (the original) Khan.

In January 2020, Tarantino told Deadline, in reference to the script:

"I think they might make that movie, but I just don't think I'm going to direct it. It's a good idea. They should definitely do it and I'll be happy to come in and give them some notes on the first rough cut."

– Quentin Tarantino ([12])

Aside from the fact that Tarantino's closing remark indicated that neither a script nor a story treatment had even been submitted yet by this time, him declining his further involvement with Star Trek also chimed with his earlier remark made to Consequence of Sound on 16 December 2019, where he stated, "I think I'm steering away from Star Trek, but I haven't had an official conversation with those guys yet." Tarantino had in the meantime come to the realization that a Star Trek film was probably not the best way to conclude his projected ten-film making career (the intent much publicized about), deeming it too much of an outlier in his hitherto illustrious body of work, particularly after the success of his ninth film, Once upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019, earning two Academy Awards in 2020), the intended penultimate one. [13]

By May 2020, Tarantino's Star Trek-project appeared to be definitively off the table, even though no official statement has been issued to the affirmative. [14] Tarantino himself has in the meantime engaged in the pre-production of his tenth film which he has intimated to become an epilogue of sorts to his realized body of work, without further mentioning Star Trek at all. [15] [16] [17]

Reported Hawley film

On 19 November 2019, Deadline reported that Noah Hawley was in final talks with Paramount Pictures to write and direct a Star Trek film. It would be produced by J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions and Hawley's 26 Keys Productions. [18] While Hollywood trades presumed Hawley's film would star the (surviving) cast of Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Star Trek Beyond, Hawley commented, "It’s still early days. For me, it’s definitely an a new direction, but it’s still early, in terms of who exactly would be in it or what the characters would be. I don’t think of it as Star Trek 4, to be reductive. This is a new beginning." [19]

There is more to Hawley's remarks than meets the eye as the Star Trek film and television franchises were "reunified" in December 2019, with the former up for re-evalution after the dismal (box office) performance of Beyond, and which could possibly spell the end of Star Trek set in the alternate reality altogether – hence Hawley's "new direction/beginning" observations. Not only that, but Bad Robot has disassociated itself from Paramount, [20] [21] meaning that it remains to been seen whether or not further participation, if any, of Bad Robot in the film franchise (now controlled by rival production company Secret Hideout under Alex Kurtzman [22]) is guaranteed, especially in light of Abrams' dissatisfaction with the franchise over merchandising rights, [23] and Bad Robot's subsequent formal disassociation from Paramount in September 2019. [24] If not, then any talks Hawley, or Tarantino for that matter, might have had with Bad Robot became moot as they were talking to the wrong people at the time, [25] arguably explaining both the declining enthusiasm of the latter, as well as the dismissive remarks Abrams made to Tarantino of the alternate reality he himself had helped create.

As if to underscore Hawley's remarks, Montgomery Scott performer Simon Pegg has stated in December 2019 that he was doubtful that Hawley's film would feature any of the alternate reality cast, as neither he, nor to the best of his knowledge, anyone else of the primary cast had been informed of the project, [26] which was followed on 9 January 2020 by an interview with Hawley to The Hollywood Reporter in which he himself cast a doubt on this as well by stating, "I don't know. But new characters often involve new cast," [27] implying in another interview, published on the same date, that talks with Kurtzman had indeed commenced as well. [28] His statements were made after rumors had already started to circulate in the media earlier that week that his film was no longer under consideration either, [29] [30] considered "too Trekkie" apparently, [31] even though conflicting reports to the contrary were still being published as well in the same time period. [32] [33]

If anything, it exemplified the confusion the Star Trek franchise found itself in pursuant the December 2019 reunification in its search for a renewed direction where rights and licenses are concerned, and its resultant confusing and conflicting communications to the outside world. [34] [35]

On 19 May 2020 Pegg reiterated on Collider his initial 2019 assessment, furthermore expressing his own doubts of any future Star Trek feature film ever coming coming to pass, when musing, "Maybe television is a better format for Star Trek. That's where it started, you know." [36] A report on Trekmovie.com the month previously has indeed indicated that Hawley's project, with no discernible progress made (no script or story treatment had even been written yet by Hawley at the time [37]), had in the mean time become stuck in limbo as well in the wake of severe financial troubles ViacomCBS found itself in because of both the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, and the deplorable financial state Paramount owner Viacom was in at the time of the reunification with CBS Corporation to begin with. [38]

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