After talk of Star Trek 4 finally began to pick up steam back in the spring – spurred by the addition of director S.J. Clarkson – the project came to a screeching halt in the summer when, in some rather shocking news, Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pine abandoned the Enterprise over a salary dispute.
Ever since George and James Kirk went rogue, information regarding Star Trek 4 has been extremely hard to come by, and although it may seem like the logical conclusion to draw, even those involved in the project don’t seem to know what’s going on with it – just ask John Cho.
The actor, who plays Sulu in the franchise, spoke to The Playlist recently and was asked for an update. Unfortunately, he couldn’t share anything but did say that he remains optimistic the movie will still happen.
“I sadly don’t have any news for you, I wish I more for you there though,” said Cho. “I don’t know what the ins and outs at the studio are but I am optimistic there will be another one because I’m optimistic about what “Star Trek” says and its place in our culture and I think it will come back around.”
“I think its an important part of American popular culture that speaks to Americas best impulses and I think that there will always be a place for “Star Trek” films and I just hope to be in it and there isn’t another totally different group of people! I’m bullish about it, and honestly, for personal reasons I suppose the last film has a cloud over it, losing Anton [Yelchin] after the last one and for me it would be important personally to make one more at least. I think it would alleviate that part of us a little bit to make at least one more.”
Though Cho doesn’t mention it here, it’s likely that the uncertainty surrounding Star Trek 4 is due to the aforementioned Chrises departing. And though everyone’s obviously hopeful that both will return, if it can only be one, it has to be Pine. Not to discount Cho and the rest of the supporting cast, but Pine’s clearly the figurehead of these movies. Not to mention he’s also managed to do the impossible and endear himself to fans despite being a rebooted, recast version of an iconic character.
Regardless, it seems we still have a while to go before Paramount’s fourth Star Trek movie takes flight, though with Discovery season 2 headed our way quite soon, Trekkies can at least take comfort in the fact that they’ll soon be acquainted with a totally new version of Spock.