DECEMBER 1, 2020 - Straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth: Noah Hawley’s Star Trek 4 is unlikely to happen. Hawley was speaking to Deadline about the finale of his latest project, Fargo season four. When Deadline asked whether Star Trek was still “in the cards” for him, Hawley replied, “It doesn’t appear to be in my immediate future.”

Hawley’s remarks come after a few months of speculation over his future with the Star Trek film franchise. Originally announced about a year ago, in November of 2019, Hawley’s version of a Star Trek film was claimed by Deadline in August to be about “a deadly virus which might feel awkward given current circumstance.” His version was also considered unlikely to star the Kelvin Timeline cast of Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana and others. In August, Deadline reported that Emma Watts, who was hired in June as president of Paramount Pictures’ Motion Picture Group, had put Hawley’s Star Trek film (along with two other candidates) “on hold” while she decided the fate of the film side of the franchise. At the time, Deadline expected that “decisions” would be made within weeks, but we haven’t had a conclusive update since.

Now, in this week’s Deadline interview, Hawley sounded pretty firm that his film will not go ahead. He said, “I think when Emma [Watts] came in, she took a look at the franchise and wanted to go in a different direction with it. But you know, life is long, we were very close to production but in this business that doesn’t mean much. You got to get out of the gate to be in the race if you know what I mean.”

Outside of Star Trek, Hawley is keeping himself busy with Fargo and writing a novel, which he declined to describe in detail, but said, “You won’t be disappointed”. The fourth season of Fargo just finished its run on FX this weekend, but you can catch up on the rest of it, currently streaming on Hulu.