With the good news that the Game of Thrones prequel series has found a director for its pilot, there must also come the bad news: director SJ Clarkson, who was announced last years as helming the fourth installment of the current Star Trek film series, will not be returning, as that iteration of the movie is currently “shelved,” according to reports over at Deadline (via CBR). This allows her to move on to the new HBO series. Sadly, the writing has been on the wall for Star Trek 4 for some time, as both Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth, who would have been returning as Captain James Kirk and Lt. George Kirk, respectively, hit a snag in negotiations, and walked away from the project.
While a fourth Star Trek film might happen at some point, the further away we get from the previous installment, 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, the less likely it appears that will happen. The current Trek film series began ten years ago with J.J. Abrams‘ 2009 reboot, which was a commercial and critical success, reviving the franchise in spectacular fashion. No one was sure if the cast of the original series would work with new actors in the roles, but Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and the rest acquitted themselves in the eyes of the fans. It’s no surprise that Abrams was asked to take on Star Wars after the massive success of Star Trek 2009.
But the franchise never became the Marvel or Star Wars level hit overseas that Paramount wanted, and with the last film making less money than the previous two, it seems they are ready to give up on this iteration of the series. No doubt Star Trek will return to movie screens one day, but it seems less and less likely it will be with these actors as the original series crew. The original Shatner/Nimoy crew did six films together, it seems odd that despite Trek ’09 being the most successful film in the entire movie franchise by far (even adjusted for inflation) that this crew wouldn’t get at least one or two more installments, but it now looks like it’s just not meant to be.
Images: Paramount Pictures
