Earlier this year, it looked as if Star Trek 4 had plotted a trajectory and began proceeding toward principal photography at warp speed. Unfortunately, the project came to a screeching halt last month when Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pine abandoned the Enterprise over a salary dispute, and the starship has been floating directionless in the void of space ever since.
Last week, during the press junket for his new film Searching, John Cho – who’s portrayed Hikaru Sulu in the franchise for nearly a decade – revealed he knew “very little” about a fourth installment and, on the whole, didn’t seem too confident it’d be moving forward any time soon. Karl Urban, on the other hand, is singing a much different tune.
For those of you who don’t know, last weekend was the annual Star Trek convention in Ticonderoga, New York and the headliner was none other than Leonard McCoy himself. Naturally, the Wellington, New Zealand actor was confronted with many a question regarding Star Trek 4 and, suffice it to say, he was much more optimistic than Cho: “Hopefully, we get back for another movie or two of them. We are just sort of waiting on negotiations. I’m confident we will,” he said.
Ultimately, Urban is much more concerned with the quality of story Star Trek 4 will tell than the salary dispute, saying:
“I just want to be sure if we do another one that it is good. I was pretty happy with Beyond, after the first two, and just want to make sure we push the envelope and develop these characters and take it somewhere new. That would be my biggest concern. What’s the story? Is it a story worth telling?”
While the weak box office haul of Star Trek Beyond is widely considered to be the root cause of the negotiation dispute, Urban’s logic is sound. After all, the series has seen a steady decline in narrative quality following J.J. Abrams’ reboot, and if Star Trek 4 will merely continue the trend, it might not be worth making.