Star Trek's Kelvin timeline crew surprised by Abrams' announcement of the new film

Nobody was more surprised about the new Star Trek film announcement than its stars

FEBRUARY 23, 2022 - Last week’s news of a potential 2023 Kelvin timeline Star Trek film featuring the original cast may have come as a welcome surprise to many fans of the franchise. However, it seems that most, if not all, of the main cast were unaware the film will be going forward. 

Executive Producer J.J. Abrams made the announcement during a Paramount investor meeting, saying, “We are thrilled to say that we are hard at work on a new Star Trek film that will be shooting by the end of the year that will be featuring our original cast.” According to the latest edition of The Hollywood Reporter, inside sources have reported the actors and their representatives were not aware that production would be going forward with the Kelvin crew, nor were they informed that filming would begin in the fall of 2022.

The film was originally slated for release in June of 2023, but last November it was pushed to December of that year. At that time, we knew that Matt Shakman (Wandavision) was set to direct. With stalled negotiations, there was little hope the franchise would produce a fourth film with the Kelvin timeline cast, actors Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, and John Cho. 

The new film will reportedly be written by Josh Friedman and Cameron Squires, based on an earlier draft by Lindsay Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet. This begs the question: “What about that second Star Trek film?” Back in September, outgoing Paramount Pictures Chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos let it slip that there was more than one Star Trek film in development. This tracks well with the appointment of Kalinda Vazquez, who was tapped to write a Star Trek film also to be produced by Bad Robot. Unfortunately, there has been no new information on a second film.

All we really know is that negotiations for a new Kelvin timeline film are finally beginning (again). With any luck, an agreement will be reached and we’ll see the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise onscreen once again. As always, we’ll bring you any new details as they are made available.