Star Trek officially has multiple movies in the works.
Paramount has officially announced that more than one Star Trek film is in the works over at the film studio. The announcement came part of a Hollywood Reporter article that was covering the shakeup and restructuring of Paramount through, via their parent company, ViacomCBS.
Head of Nickelodeon, Brian Robbins, will now also serve as the top guy for Paramount Studios going forward. This was after Jim Gianopulos stepped down from his role. Gianopulos will continue to serve as an advisor for Robbins through the end of the year.
That isn’t all according to The Hollywood Reporter, as David Nevins will take over oversight of Paramount Television Studios. Nicole Clemens, PTS chief, will report directly to him now.
It was in this write-up about the studio shakeup that revealed the pending Trek films.
"Since its inception, Paramount has been synonymous with great theatrical entertainment, and together, we have launched massive global hits like Mission: Impossible—Fallout, and helped build new cinematic worlds, like A Quiet Place and Sonic the Hedgehog, and elevated existing ones, like Transformers and, Star Trek (with new films in the works), among others."
A bold new step for Star Trek films
Throughout the run of Trek films dating back over 40 years, Paramount never did multiple franchises at the same time. The Next Generation aired on television while the original series crew was doing the latter part of their six films, they never released one after another. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country came out three years before Star Trek: Generations, and while that film ended the original series officially, it also launched a brand new film franchise.
There was never again another original series Star Trek film again. The two brands never traded worried about market confusion.
It sounds as though that may no longer be the case. While Star Trek 4, featuring the surviving members of the Kelvin Timeline is rumored, there is also an unknown project, that will feature all-new characters.
It’s very possible that Star Trek 4 is the last film in the Kelvin franchise, and the new project with new characters will be made only after Star Trek 4 is done, but that’s no guarantee. With the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the fact that nothing ever truly ends anymore (at least it feels that way), Paramount may be attempting to launch two unique film franchises.
One that surrounds the Kelvin crew and one that doesn’t. These films may come after one another and if the fourth film does well, there will likely be a fifth Kelvin film. Making it very likely that these franchises end up releasing films a year or two apart for a little while. Something that Trek has never seen.
Of course, the films may end up changing over time, so we’ll just have to wait and see what is announced.