3 Reasons Star Trek should stop making new Kelvin movies

Anton Yelchin’s death hurts cast chemistry

It’s so hard to replace an actor who just leaves a property. It’s even harder when that actor is taken away from it. Anton Yelchin, who played the energetic and lively Pavel Chekov, tragically passed away just before the premiere of Star Trek: Beyond from a freak car accident. Yelchin, especially in the second and third Kelvin films had a big role and more of his personality was explored. He was a fan favorite and brought a modern twist on a beloved classic character.

It’d be hard enough to re-cast Yelchin’s Chekov if Yelchin was the first person to play the character. Then consider how beloved Walter Koenig was in the original role and how hard it was to accept anyone else playing the role. To then ask anyone else to step in would be too hard of a challenge, with too little of a payoff. All fans will think is “that could’ve been Yelchin if he were still here”. Fans wouldn’t be able to accept the appearance of the character without Yelchin being attached to it.

Sure you could do some magic-time-travel nonsense and bring Koeing back as Chekov and just say that Chekov came back to the future, but still, it’s not the same.

So the other alternative is doing the film without Checkov, which would mean that fans will still be reminded of Yelchin’s passing. The crew would have to decide to kill off Chekov or write him out. That process can really affect how people take to the film as well.

Trying to move on from Yelchin’s passing is the biggest issue that any new Kelvin films will have to deal with it. Truthfully, if he were still here, there wouldn’t be many strong reasons not to do a fourth film. Without him, however, there’s no good reason to do a fourth film.