Should fans be optimistic over who's leading the Star Trek Origins film?

Star Trek Origins is a go, and it'll tell the story of the earliest days of the franchise. It'll focus on the developing relations between humans and aliens; most likely focusing on the developing dynamic between humans and Vulcans. It sounds like it may be akin to the old sci-fi film/show Alien Nation in its presentation.

Funny enough, the show version of Alien Nation starred Gary Graham, who would feature on Star Trek: Enterprise as Solar.

With the film now officially in development, who are the people behind the project? Well, the director of the franchise is Toby Haynes, while long-time producer and writer Seth Grahame-Smith will write the story. A story that some fans are nervous about seeing. Yet, should they be?

What have Haynes and Grahame-Smith done and should that give fans pause or excitement about the project?

Grahame-Smith seems to be the more accomplished of the two when it comes to film. He's written the Dark Shadows reboot with Johnny Depp, the film adaptation of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, the flop that was Fantastic Four (2015), and the successful Lego spinoff movie, the Lego Batman movie.

To make matters worse, he was also a major voice on the 2023 flop, The Flash.

For Haynes, he's directed mostly television works. Like Doctor Who, Sherlock, The Musketeers, Black Mirror, and Andor. It was his work with the Black Mirror franchise that many fans point to as optimism for his involvement, as he directed the 2017 Star Trek-inspired episode, USS Callister.

It looks like Haynes has only directed one film so far, the 2019 movie Brexit: The Uncivil War. Despite being largely unknown to the international market, the film does have mostly positive reviews.

Still, Haynes has next to no experience with large projects like Star Trek, and Grahame-Smith's work has not been the most well-received. That's not to say that they couldn't turn something into magic. After all, Haynes did have a hit with his Brexit film, and Grahame-Smith did help write the Batman Lego Movie, which was a critical success.

The potential is there, but past results have us feeling uneasy about their involvement in the project.