While things are going great on the TV side of things, Star Trek at the movies has stalled over the past few years. 2016’s Star Trek Beyond was the last film in the series, with Paramount struggling to get another off the ground – for various reasons – ever since. If Star Trek 4 is going to happen, though, Spock star Zachary Quinto says that he believes all the Kelvin cast would be “thrilled” to come back.
When speaking to ComicBook.com to promote the second season of AMC’s NOS4A2, Quinto was asked about his future with the Trek franchise. He gave a well-worded, lengthy reply that praised the modern TV series for their success and voiced his interest in returning if the opportunity arose. However, he made clear that he’s not sitting at home just waiting for the phone to ring.
“It’s already thriving in the television format with Discovery and Picard and the spinoffs,” Quinto said. “I can’t even keep track of how many new Star Trek stories are being told since our last film in 2016. All I know is that we, all of us, had an incredible experience making those films. If there is an appetite for more of those stories with us in them, I’m sure that we would all be thrilled to come back and do one more or whatever, but I’m not really attached to it anymore.”
Quinto then elaborated on what he means by no longer being “attached” to the role. It seems he means this from an emotional, personal standpoint, rather than that he’s officially done as the Vulcan first officer. The actor expressed how much being part of the Trek universe means to him, but that he’s decided to take a healthy, “come what may” approach to the possibility of more voyages on the Starship Enterprise.
“I stepped away from any expectation or any real certainty that it’s ever going to happen again. I think that’s the only real way to move through the world, right? If it happens, that’d be great, but I’m not going to sit around waiting for it to happen. I have a ton of other stuff in my life, in my career. I have lifelong friendships from those films and working relationships and a lot of respect and fond memories, so if that’s what it ends up being and I can look back on my life and say that’s what it was, then that’s incredible, and if we get to do more, that’s also incredible. But as far as the stories go, they’ve been around for decades and generations, and I think that that will continue, whether or not we continue on with them.”
Quinto’s comments echo Scotty star Simon Pegg’s own recent remarks on ST4. Though Pegg seemed less open-minded about the possibility, it seems both actors – and presumably the rest of the cast – have not been contacted about doing a fourth film of late. This is curious, as the studio hired Fargo creator Noah Hawley to write and direct Star Trek 4 last November. It’s looking likely, then, that Hawley’s effort will be another reboot, something the filmmaker has previously hinted at.