Fargo and Legion series creator Noah Hawley had been tapped to write and direct a new Star Trek film for Paramount in November 2019. However, Paramount has reportedly put Hawley's Star Trek film on hold as film chief Emma Watts assesses the studio's options on where to take the science fiction franchise.
Created by Gene Roddenberry in 1966, the original Star Trek series aired for three seasons on NBC and followed the voyages of the starship USS Enterprise under the leadership of Captain James T. Kirk. The success of Stark Trek spawned a number of spin-off shows, animated series, and a film franchise that would later be rebooted in 2009 by director J. J. Abrams with Chris Pine in the role of Kirk. While the first two installments of the new films, Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, were well-received and proved to be successful at the box office, the third entry, Star Trek Beyond, underperformed financially and put the future of the franchise into question.
Noah Hawley's Star Trek film, which the filmmaker indicated might be a fresh start for the franchise with a new cast, was one of Paramount's options for the franchise moving forward and was reportedly in soft prep mode. Now, Deadline reports that while the project is on hold at the moment, but Hawley has not exited the project yet. The other two options for Paramount are the Star Trek film originally written by Mark L. Smith for director Quentin Tarantino, and a fourth installment of the Chris Pine film series, which had S. J. Clarkson attached to direct at one point before she parted to work on the now-canceled Game of Thrones prequel show.
According to Deadline, Hawley's Star Trek movie involves a deadly virus, and the Smith script may be viewed best as spin-offs in the vein of director James Mangold's Logan once the main film series has been "revitalized." Decisions regarding the future of the franchise will be made over the next few weeks and the outlet notes that there will be an emphasis on improving the franchise's overseas numbers.
The possibility of seeing Hawley's Star Trek project canceled or postponed will probably come as a disappointment to fans of his work. After all, Hawley has proven himself more than capable of taking established works and creating new content from them with his Fargo series and the X-Men show Legion. That said, the Chris Pine film series still has several fans who would prefer to see his incarnation of Kirk and the rest of the Enterprise crew return. While Paramount considers their next move, the Star Trek franchise still has plenty to offer on television.
Star Trek Discovery season 3 premieres on October 15, 2020, on CBS All-Access.
Source: Deadline