ICYMI: A Star Trek film is back on the cards as Paramount taps Discovery writer Kalinda Vazquez for new “original movie”

Kalinda Vazquez has been tapped to write a new Star Trek film, to be produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot

MARCH 9, 2021 - In case you missed it: last week, Deadline reported that television writer and producer Kalinda Vazquez has been chosen by Paramount Pictures to write a new Star Trek film, to be produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot.

Vazquez comes to the table having written the Star Trek: Short Treks episode “Ask Not”, as well as the teleplay for Star Trek: Discovery season three episode 10, “Terra Firma Part 2”. She has also served as a consulting producer for several episodes of Discovery. Before working on Star Trek, Vazquez wrote and produced for both the AMC series Fear the Walking Dead and Marvel’s Runaways, and she’s worked on numerous other television series as well.

Vazquez also has one more tie to Star Trek, and it’s really something quite special: her first name, Kalinda, comes from a character in The Original Series season two episode “By Any Other Name”. 

Star Trek: Discovery Executive Producer Michelle Paradise offered her support to Vazquez on social media on Thursday, saying “CONGRATULATIONS @KalindaVazquez!!!!!!!!!  So excited to see this one day (hopefully sooner than later!).”

CONGRATULATIONS @KalindaVazquez!!!!!!!!! So excited to see this one day (hopefully sooner than later!). 🖖 https://t.co/zelReYTeVn

— Michelle Paradise (@michelleparadis) March 4, 2021

This is not the first time we’ve heard about a new Star Trek 4 film in the works. Back in November of 2019, the same journalist at Deadline reported Noah Hawley’s attachment to the franchise, in nearly the same fashion as Vazquez. Since then, the last two years have been mired in rumors and speculation as to what that film might look like - before finally being put to rest last December. In the same time period, we also saw proposed films by S.J. Clarkson and Quentin Tarantino come and go.

So what does that mean for the new script to come from Kalinda Vazquez? According to Deadline, the script from Vazquez “is a blind deal for an original movie”, but that’s the extent of the details. We’ll let you know more as we do.