rewrite this title Why Noah Hawley’s Star Trek movie was scrapped

The Star Trek franchise can’t seem to catch a break on the big screen. There have been numerous Star Trek movies in development since the release of Star Trek Beyond almost ten years ago, including one from Alien: Earth creator Noah Hawley. That project actually got pretty far along before Paramount pulled the plug, and Hawley explained how that happened while speaking on the SmartLess podcast.

How Noah Hawley’s Star Trek Movie Fell Apart

Hawley made his feature directorial debut with Lucy in the Sky in 2019 and was eager to tackle another movie, but perhaps one on a larger scale. “It’s all franchises. And I thought, everything’s war, right? Star Wars is war, and Marvel is war,” he said. “But Star Trek isn’t war. Star Trek is exploration, right? It’s people solving problems by being smarter than the other guy.“

“I went in, I talked to Paramount, I sold them this original idea,” he said. “It wasn’t Chris Pine, it wasn’t anything.“

He continued, “I wrote it. They said, ‘We love it. Let’s prep it.’ I was going to move to Australia. We were booking stages. And then, as happens in Hollywood, Jim Gianopulos, who was running the studio at the time, he’s like, ‘I’m going to bring in somebody else under me, and they’re going to take over the film studio.’ And the first thing they did was kill the original Star Trek movie. They said, ‘Well, how do we know people are going to like it? Shouldn’t we do a transition movie from Chris Pine, play it safe. And so it kind of went away.“

Hawley had even been looking at Cate Blanchett and Rami Malek to star in the film, but alas, it was not to be.

What’s the status of the Next Star Trek Movie?

Despite this executive pulling the plug on Hawley’s project in favour of another Star Trek movie led by Chris Pine, that project also didn’t happen. Despite several attempts, Paramount was unable to get any Star Trek movie off the ground. The new regime at the studio, led by Skydance’s David Ellison, has decided to scrap Star Trek 4 altogether and revitalize the sci-fi franchise with fresh faces.

It was announced last month that Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) are set to write, produce, and direct a new Star Trek movie. Details are sparse, but sources close to the project indicate that it will be something entirely new and not connected to any previous film, television series, or Star Trek-related project currently in development.

Honestly, a completely fresh take may be what’s needed at this point, but I’ll believe it when I’m sitting in the theater. In the time it’s taken Paramount to do practically nothing with the theatrical side of the franchise, Star Trek has been very busy on the small screen with three live-action series (and another on the way), two animated series, and even a streaming movie.

Paramount has seemed intent on turning Star Trek into a bombastic sci-fi action brand. And sure, the franchise has always featured its share of space battles and big set pieces, but that’s never been its defining quality. For me, the heart of Star Trek lies in exploration, social commentary, ethical dilemmas, and the perennial question of what it means to be human. The Kelvin-verse movies definitely went all-in on spectacle, but they never fully captured this side of the franchise. I mean, one of the best Star Trek films is literally about saving humpback whales. So yes, I’d love to see Star Trek back on the big screen, but I want it to feel like Star Trek, not just another loud, generic sci-fi actioner.