Quentin Tarantino didn't do Star Trek because he didn't want it to be his last film

The Quentin Tarantino Star Trek film is dead, thank goodness. The franchise would not have been able to rebound and return to form had Tarantino gotten his fingers on the franchise. While a renowned filmmaker, Tarantino wanted to bastardize Trek and turn it into just another one of his over-the-top, violent, escapades of debauchery. And while there's place for such films, that place isn't in the Star Trek universe.

Gene Roddenberry wanted to Star Trek to tell tales of inclusivity and togetherness, not a blood-shed, crime-spree, where everyone is swearing and doing things that are beneath the grand ideals of Star Trek. It's a good thing that this film never happened, but apparently, the reason it didn't happen may have been more on Tarantino than on the studio.

Tarantino is known for being a bit of a mercurial figure, and he isn't someone that people have gotten a good handle on. Despite being just 60, and having been active for nearly 40 years, Tarantino has made just nine films. The 10th of which, The Critic, will be his last before retiring. Had Tarantino done the Star Trek film, that would've been his final film, more than likely.

And that was something he didn't want for his legacy. Mark L. Smith, a co-writer on Taratino's Star Trek script, told Collider that this idea of his legacy ending with Star Trek was too big for the famed director to accept, with Smith saying;

“Quentin and I went back and forth, he was gonna do some stuff on it, and then he started worrying about the number, his kind of unofficial number of films. I remember we were talking, and he goes, ‘If I can just wrap my head around the idea that Star Trek could be my last movie, the last thing I ever do. Is this how I want to end it?’ And I think that was the bump he could never get across, so the script is still sitting there on his desk.”

While there are fans of his who would've loved to see what his dark and violent version of Star Trek would've been, many more are thankful that the franchise was spared his controversial lens.