Paramount pausing Noah Hawley’s Star Trek film is a bad sign

Left to right: Simon Pegg plays Scotty, Sofia Boutella plays Jaylah and Chris Pine plays Kirk in Star Trek Beyond from Paramount Pictures, Skydance, Bad Robot, Sneaky Shark and Perfect Storm Entertainment
Left to right: Simon Pegg plays Scotty, Sofia Boutella plays Jaylah and Chris Pine plays Kirk in Star Trek Beyond from Paramount Pictures, Skydance, Bad Robot, Sneaky Shark and Perfect Storm Entertainment /
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Paramount has paused Noah Hawley’s Star Trek film, a worrying sign for the film franchise.

Fans hoping to see Noah Hawley’s entry into the Star Trek film canon should know it’s time to be worried. New Paramount president Emma Watts has frozen the project until she and the studio can find “clarity” on the project. While the news is disappointing, it’s not completely unexpected or surprising for that matter. Hawley’s fourth film, in what many believed would continue the Chris Pine-Kelvin timeline of films, is the second attempt to get the next installment of the Kelvin timeline made.

Another film by S.J. Clarkson was in the works a few years prior, which would’ve seen Pine’s James T. Kirk go back in time to meet his father, George. The film would’ve been set before the events of the first film, where Chris Hemsworth’s George Kirk was still alive. The film was ultimately scrapped due to budget issues with obtaining the entire cast.

While the films have largely been well received since J.J. Abrams took over, they haven’t all been as beloved or financially successful as hoped and the film’s gross revenue has declined from film to film. Another point of interest is the issue with actors. There’s currently already a man playing Spock on Star Trek: Discovery/Strange New Worlds. How will Paramount handle that? We see that when DC has a television character that coincides with the same character in a movie release, that character gets removed from television.

Is that part of the problem with Paramount? Do they not want to have to compete against the ViacomCBS part of Star Trek? Possibly. Would they consider doing a Kelvin movie without Spock? Unlikely. Which brings us to the other huge obstacle, Anton Yelchin. Yelchin played Pavel Chekov in the Kelvin timeline and was marvelous in the role. Unfortunately, a freak accident took the young actor from us just after filming of Star Trek: Beyond finished. With Yelchin now gone, what would Star Trek do? Recast him? That surely wouldn’t sit well with the fans. Do you shoot without him? That wouldn’t be much better as Yelchin and Chekov were both too vital to the previous films to not include him.

A new Star Trek film will come eventually, they’ve been around for 40 years, why wouldn’t a new film come? Yet, it seems unlikely that it’ll be with the crew of Kirk lead Kelvin crew.

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