Star Trek 4 died because its script was bad and now we have confirmation about that.
Star Trek 4 was supposed to be on its way to theaters by now and if not, already out. The film was set for production at the end of 2022, and the idea was that it’d be out sometime in 2024 at the latest. Paramount went through the whole dog and pony show, telling everyone that the original cast from the 2009 reboot was coming back and that it was going to start filming at the end of 2022.
And right off the bat, we knew that wasn’t true, as Karl Urban was already contractually obligated to film The Boys at the same time. Then we found out only Chris Pine was under contract, the director soon dropped out and by the end of the year, the film project was dead.
So what killed it?
One of Star Trek’s most iconic behind-the-scenes players reveals what happened to Star Trek 4
We heard for some time that it was due to the script, but the reason why has been vague but now we know for sure; it was the script. According to James MacKinnon, Trek’s legendary makeup artist, the movie died due to script issues.
MacKinnon, who has worked on Deep Space Nine, Star Trek 2009, and other Trek properties as a makeup artist, revealed to TrekMovie.com that;
"Maybe the Star Trek feature with Chris Pine comes back in the mix, if they can get that thing written… I was hired for one week, and then I was fired, because that shut down. But maybe that happens again. Well, we’ll see. I don’t know… We were getting ready to start prepping that movie, Star Trek 4.We were supposed to shoot in the middle of [2022] and it was supposed to come out the following year [2023], but I think a script rewrite went in a different direction."
It sure sounds like higher-ups started screwing around with the project, trying to make it so that it appeals to everyone beyond just Trek fans. And that didn’t seem to work as it seemingly killed the project.