“Star Trek” is about to explore a whole new era of its timeline. A new film in the universe Gene Roddenberry created, to be produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot for Paramount, and directed by “Andor” helmer Toby Haynes and written by “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” scribe Seth Grahame-Smith, is arriving at impulse power, if not warp.
The film will be set decades before the events of the 2009 “Star Trek” film Abrams directed, which explored a parallel timeline to the main “Star Trek” canon viewers have known and loved to show how Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) met for the first time. It’s unclear if it will actually be set in that timeline — known to Trekkies as the “Kelvin Timeline” — or in the main continuity. But apparently it will be an “origin” story, so it must be connected in some way to “Trek” storytelling that’s already known and loved.
That said, Paramount is calling the untitled film “an expansion of the ‘Star Trek’ universe.” At the very least that means exploring a new part of the “Trek” timeline. If it’s decades before the events of the 2009 film, that means it’s probably after the events of prequel series “Star Trek: Enterprise,” set in the mid 22nd century and concluding with the founding of the United Federation of Planets. So if it’s in the “Kelvin Timeline,” it could be set around the time that Kirk’s father George (played by Chris Hemsworth in the 2009 film) was a first officer in Starfleet. There have been rumors for years about Hemsworth possibly starring in another “Trek” film, given that his fame rose exponentially following his brief appearance in Abrams’ film, as the first “Thor” movie was still two years away. One would have expected any Hemsworth participating to have been announced at this time, however.
Other than Hemsworth’s scene in the 2009 film, and little flashbacks in the follow-up film “Star Trek: Beyond” almost nothing has been glimpsed of the almost 100 years between “Star Trek: Enterprise” and the launch of the USS Enterprise nearly a century later. So this could very much be “fresh snow” for Grahame-Smith and Haynes to explore. And if there’s anything “Star Trek” loves, it’s unknown territory.
But there is something more familiar in the works too: a “Star Trek 4” that wraps up the Pine-Quinto-starring films Abrams kicked off is still apparently in the works, even if Pine feared that it’s cursed.
Reporting by Brian Welk.
