Of course the new Star Trek film is going to affect canon

News broke earlier this year that Star Trek was making two theatrical films side-by-side. Star Trek 4, featuring Chris Pine and the rest of the Kelvin Timeline crew, and a prequel film. Originally, we thought the film would be a prequel film to the Kelvin timeline. Featuring the story of how that universe had its first contact and the fallout after it. Then we got the awful news that this other new film would be a sequel/prequel to the main Star Trek timeline.

Serving as a prequel to Star Trek: Enterprise and technically a sequel to Star Trek: First Contact, this new film will explore the aftermath of First Contact Day and how the Federation would be developed with mostly just the Vulcans and humans.

The film was met with trepidation, and while some are trying to defend its existence by saying the film won't jeopardize established canon, we know that's a lie. There hasn't been a show under the Alex Kurtzman Era that hasn't altered established canon and sometimes to feverishly silly degrees. This is not a group that cares about the stories told before them. This era of showrunners and writers generally feel as though they can make Star Trek "better" by fixing things.

This has been a running issue with the franchise since the end of Enterprise. Spock has a sister, the overly glossy and overly modern Enterprise. The reboot of the Gorn and the entire re-writing of their history. Every show has affected canon to some degree. We have no reason to believe this film won't.

The troubling part is that the canon being affected is arguably the most cherished story in Star Trek history; the first contact of humanity with the Vulcans. The fear that many fans have over the re-writing of that lore isn't overblown. We've had nearly a decade of stories told through the series' format so we know to worry about the changes that can happen.

Some will argue canon isn't a big deal, but that's just a lie. Canon is what keeps fans from generation to generation. Being able to build off of and continue stories is why entities like Star Trek exist. Breaking those bonds only serves to fragment the fanbase and exclude otherwise diehard fans from the experience. If you can't tell the story you want without ruining someone else's favorite entity, then don't tell that story.