Star Trek boss Alex Kurtzman: “the line between movies and television is gone”

The Star Trek Universe encompasses all of the television series…will it also include film?

APRIL 15, 2021 - Star Trek Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman is working to bring the continuity of the franchise’s film and television properties together, blurring the line between the two - a line that he says is “gone”. Kurtzman’s comments were part of a recent, in-depth feature from Variety on the impact that big intellectual properties (or IPs) have had on the streaming industry - IPs like Star Trek, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Star Wars.

Kurtzman is certainly no stranger to both sides of the Star Trek franchise, having worked on the first two Kelvin Timeline films, as well as spearheading four new Star Trek television series (and counting!) in the last four years. As the way people watch television has moved more towards a streaming format, Kurtzman sees film and TV (for properties like Star Trek, at least) becoming more and more alike. Kurtzman told Variety, “It’s impossible not to accept the reality that the line between movies and television is gone.”

While he doesn’t think having a “stand alone” film is necessarily a bad thing for the franchise, Kurtzman said, “If they aren’t connected in some way, then you’re basically running two universes parallel as opposed to interconnected, and I think that those messages could potentially cancel each other out.”

Part of that “interconnectedness” are the intersecting timelines of the various Star Trek series currently airing. To bring order to the Star Trek Universe, producers have started holding a “monthly showrunner’s meeting”. In these meetings, showrunners from each Star Trek series have the opportunity to share their ideas for content and create a consistent “universe”. On the new monthly meetings, Kurtzman said, “We make sure that those showrunners are coordinating so that they’re not stepping on each other’s toes.”

Theoe meetings are likely the reason fans have seen continuity links between Star Trek series like Discovery, Picard and Lower Decks. And now, with a new film set to release in 2023, one can’t help but wonder how it, too, will tie into the rest of the franchise.