Despite Zachary Quinto’s desire, it’s time to end the Star Trek Kelvin films

Zachary Quinto is sure the cast would reunite for more Star Trek films based on the Kelvin timeline.

It’s time to put to rest the Kelvin timeline in the Star Trek universe. Sure, Zachary Quinto, who played Spock, believes the crew would all return for another movie if asked. Something Simon Pegg, who played Scottie, would love to as well, but both acknowledge that it doesn’t look good for a fourth film featuring that set of actors and characters.

Honestly, it’s time to lay that part of the Trek franchise to rest for good. The films were never the hit financially they were supposed to be and all three films curried some major blowback from the fanbase. Either for the lens flares and more action tones, the depiction of the Klingons, the use of Khan Noonien Singh for Into Darkness, and the general overall reception of the third film, Star Trek: Beyond. While still mostly positive, it was a sign the franchise didn’t have any new and unique ideas.

Speaking to ComicBook.com, Quinto spoke about returning to the franchise.

"All I know is that we, all of us, had an incredible experience making those films. If there is an appetite for more of those stories with us in them, I’m sure that we would all be thrilled to come back and do one more or whatever, but I’m not really attached to it anymore."

Doing a fourth film makes little sense, considering there’s no way to win. If they recreate another idea from Star Trek’s past like Into Darkness retold the story of Khan, the fans will hate it. If they try to do something original then fans won’t take to it as expected, due to the contentious nature that Bad Robot has with the fanbase.

Then there’s the fact that Trek fans want new stories with new characters. Recycling the same characters time and time again only kills a franchise by oversaturating it. They need to do a new movie with characters never before seen on the big screen.

There’s also the fact that the actor who played Pavel Chekov, the late Anton Yelchin isn’t able to play his role anymore. Yelchin died due to a vehicle malfunction just weeks before Beyond’s premiere. Not only was Yelchin beloved across science fiction and film in general for his creative and daring films, but he was easily one of New-Trek’s most beloved actors. His portrayal of the young, aloof, yet lovable Chekov was often the best parts of the film. To do a fourth film without Chekov or Yelchin would be an idea nearly impossible to reconcile with.

Do you recast him? Kill him off? Do what Boy Meets World did to Mr. Turner by having Chekov just out of the line of the camera the entire film? There is no good solution there. The only one that makes sense is to put this movie universe to rest.

Kelvin had a run and gave us a lot of enjoyable moments. Let it rest now.