Summary
- Chris Pine hasn’t received any updates regarding Star Trek 4, and he hasn’t read any new scripts related to a sequel.
- Star Trek remains a successful franchise, with the first two films making $386 million and $467 million worldwide, respectively.
- Chris Pine believes Star Trek 4 is cursed and even a story featuring Chris Hemsworth’s return as George Kirk didn’t pan out as expected. It may be time to reboot the franchise with fresh faces.
Chris Pine has gone where many actors have never gone before. The villain of the new Disney film Wish can say that he is the star of not one but two well-known franchises. Pine first starred as Captain Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 reboot of Star Trek, and then he joined up with co-star Gal Gadot in DC Comics’ big-screen adaptation of Wonder Woman. Unfortunately, though, Pine doesn’t have any good news to share with the fans where Star Trek 4 is concerned. Pine was asked in a recent interview with ComicBook.com, while promoting Wish, if there were any updates regarding a new film. Pine replied as follows:
Pine went on to say that he hadn’t read any new scripts related to a Star Trek Beyond sequel either. Most recently, back in October, writer and director Lindsey Anderson Beer offered a similar update regarding a fourth Star Trek installment. Beer said she was no longer attached to the project in a separate interview with ComicBook.com, which has since been taken down:
“I wrote a couple drafts of that before I had to leave for Pet Sematary. And it was originally… the seed of the idea came from J.J. himself, who’s such a creatively generous person. And it was amazing collaborating with him. And it was very sad to leave our Zoom sessions to focus on [Pet Sematary: Bloodlines], but this was my baby, so I had to prioritize.”
Star Trek’s Legacy With Chris Pine
In total, actor Chris Pine portrayed James T. Kirk in three Star Trek movies from 2009 until 2016. J.J. Abrams helmed the first two installments, and both films were box office boffo. Star Trek made $386 million worldwide, while 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness fared even better. In that sequel, Trekkies clearly responded to the return of a fan-favorite villain, Khan Noonien Singh (Benedict Cumberbatch).
Star Trek Into Darkness made $467 million globally. And even with Star Trek Beyond (2016) underperforming at the box office ($343 million), a fourth installment has languished in various stages of development hell over the years. Chris Pine believes Star Trek 4 is actually cursed! And for a time, a story featuring Chris Hemsworth’s return as George Kirk had even been pitched to the MCU actor. But it turns out the idea wasn’t as intriguing as the actor hoped for. Hemsworth said during an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast:
“It wasn’t what I was thinking it would have been or could have been. And I thought, ‘Oh, cool, let’s figure that out and keep going,’ and then I think everyone just got busy and so on. It’d be a bit weird now to flash back to your father and… ‘Why is he so much older than when he died?’”
Audiences loved Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness. Both films received “A” CinemaScores, while Star Trek Beyond still registered a respectable “A-” rating. But it’s been seven years since J.J. Abrams’ version of the U.S.S. Enterprise crew has gone where no one has gone before. And with the death of Anton Yelchin (Mr. Chekov), it will be difficult for that cast to recapture the same cinematic magic. Perhaps, it’s simply time to reboot the franchise once more with fresh faces.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
