While Star Trek has been growing in strength on TV over the past few years, the movie side of the franchise has gone into hibernation. We haven’t had another film set aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise since 2016’s Star Trek: Beyond, with the original version of Star Trek 4 falling through. And though a new filmmaker is attached to helm the next big screen installment, one veteran of the Trek universe has now cast doubt on the viability of the franchise.
Simon Pegg has played Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in all three of the Kelvin timeline movies so far, as well as serving as co-writer on Beyond, so he’s definitely got an expert position on the situation. And in an interview with Total Film (via Games Radar), the British star voiced his opinion that a fourth film in the rebooted series might not materialize, outlining three major reasons why.
“The fact is, Star Trek movies don’t make Marvel money,” he said. “They make maybe $500 million at the most, and to make one now, on the scale they’ve set themselves, is $200 million. You have to make three times that to make a profit.”
He’s got a point there. Beyond was well-received by fans and critics, but it only earned $343.5 million worldwide on the back of a $185 million budget. Pegg went on to say that he thinks there might be even less interest nowadays and also expressed the opinion that the cast might not be so keen to return, following the death of much-missed co-star Anton Yelchin.
“I don’t feel like the last one… They didn’t really take advantage of the 50th anniversary. The regimen at the time dropped the ball on the promo of the film. And we’ve lost momentum. I think losing Anton [Yelchin] was a huge blow to our little family, and our enthusiasm to do another one might have been affected by that. So I don’t know.”
Pegg’s concerns come in the wake of Noah Hawley being hired to write and direct Star Trek 4 last November, with it said that the Kelvin cast – led by Chris Pine – will return. However, since then, Hawley has hinted his project might be a reboot. We Got This Covered has also heard that the studio and Hawley are clashing over whether to include Pine and co. And let’s not forget about Tarantino’s R-rated project, which is likely not happening anymore, either.
With the films in such an uncertain state, then, at least we have lots of Star Trek on the small screen to look forward to. Speaking of which, Picard continues Thursdays on CBS All Access.