Abrams Hopes To Reunite ‘Star Trek’ Cast For Fourth Film Of Reboot Series

J.J. Abrams is hoping to get his superstar Star Trek ensemble back together for the fourth film in the reboot series that revitalized the classic sci-fi franchise back in 2009. The series stalled after the middling success of Star Trek Beyond, but Abrams is bringing in a fresh new director who will deliver a new vision of the Star Trek universe.

Abrams announced plans for the film on Tuesday at the Paramount Investors Day presentation. Abrams will not be stepping back into the director’s chair for this installment. Instead, he will be producing while Wandavision and Game of Thrones director Matt Shakman helms the film in his second feature directing project.

“We are thrilled to say that we are hard at work on a new Star Trek that will be shooting by the end of the year that will be featuring our original cast and some new characters that are going to be really fun and exciting,” Abrams told investors. “We’re thrilled about this film, we have a bunch of other stories that we’re talking about that we think will be really exciting, so can’t wait for you to see what we’re cooking up.”

Paramount and Abrams have yet to actually sit down with any original cast members to finalize negotiations, so the announcement to investors was more aspirational than factual.

The 2009 film introduced all-new actors into the iconic roles popularized by the original Gene Roddenberry-penned series back in 1966. These included Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Karl Urban as Bones, Simon Pegg as Scotty, John Cho as Sulu, and Anton Yelchin as Chekhov. Yelchin tragically died in 2016 before Star Trek Beyond was released. Most of these actors were propelled to a new level of their careers after their roles in Star Trek, and it would be great to see them step into those roles again under a new director.

Abrams also hinted at “a bunch of other stories” that are in the works in the Star Trek world that we may not even know about yet. In 2018, it was announced that a film was in the works starring Pine and Chris Hemsworth reprising his role as Kirk’s late father, but news on that project has been all but silent. There were also brief reports that Quentin Tarantino was in talks to make a Star Trek movie, though there have been few mentions of that recently.

Along with these planned feature projects, Star Trek has been brought back to its TV roots in a huge way with series such as the 3D animated Star Trek Prodigy and acclaimed drama Star Trek Picard.