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Disney pulling back on the MCU is a sign that Star Trek will slim down their content

Star Trek likely won't return to past trends if the industry leaders don't.

By Chad Porto

L-R David Ajala as Book, Mary Wiseman as Tilly, Doug Jones as Saru, Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham, Wilson Cruz as Culber, Blu Del Barrio as Adira and Callum Keith Rennie as Raynor in season 5 of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: DISCOVERY. Photo Credit: James Dimmock/Paramount+
L-R David Ajala as Book, Mary Wiseman as Tilly, Doug Jones as Saru, Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham, Wilson Cruz as Culber, Blu Del Barrio as Adira and Callum Keith Rennie as Raynor in season 5 of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: DISCOVERY. Photo Credit: James Dimmock/Paramount+ /
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Hopefully, Star Trek fans enjoyed the time period where five (six counting Short Treks) shows were in active development at the same time; because that's likely to never happen again. Star Trek had Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and Prodigy all airing at the same time, with Short Treks just coming to an end. It was a wild time and people within Trek wanted there to be 52 weeks of content per year.

That idea lasted just one, somewhat janky, year. It wasn't every week, as some had hoped but it was pretty close. Still, it didn't last. And it's likely to never happen again. While we've spoken at length of the financial situation with Star Trek's parent company, Paramount Global, as well as the issues streaming has endured, the industry is very monkey see, monkey do.

If the industry leaders are doing something, everyone else will follow suit. Following that logic, Disney just announced that they would be scaling back on their cash cow; the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They're reducing all of their MCU films down to two or three at most per year, while the television shows will be pulled back to just two per year.

With Bob Iger telling shareholders during a recent earning's call (via IGN)

"“We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three. And we’re working hard on what that path is.”"

If Disney is pulling on their biggest cash cow, then it shouldn't surprise anyone else that Star Trek would likely do the same. It's unlikely that Star Trek bucks the trend under the Paramount umbrella and starts putting out show after show, film after film like they were doing before.

I think execs saw that move as one having diminishing returns, and with Disney making it clear that it wasn't working for them, it's unlikely Paramount will try to do it more with Star Trek. For better or worse.

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