Tarantino Creates a Kelvin Timeline Kerfuffle

"QUENTIN TARANTINO FOR USA TODAY" by Ian White is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Seriously, Quentin Tarantino just can’t stop talking about Star Trek. This time, it’s all gone a bit...confusing.

Comicbook.com reported this week that in an interview with MTV’s “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Tarantino said that while he wants his film to be set in the “Chris Pine Timeline”, he still wants The Original Series to have happened. He admits that he doesn’t understand the Kelvin timeline. He said, “Now, I still don’t quite understand, and JJ [Abrams] can’t explain it to me, and my editor has tried to explain it to me and I still don’t get it...about something happened in the first movie that now kind of wiped the slate clean.”

He goes on to say that he doesn’t like the idea of an alternate timeline, and he would prefer that The Original Series has happened, it just hasn’t happened yet. Tarantino added that JJ Abrams told him to ignore it, saying “Nobody likes it. I don’t understand it. Just do whatever you want. If you want it to happen the exact way it happens on the series, it can.”

Of course, “just ignoring” the Kelvin Timeline could have some practical implications for the franchise, especially amid ongoing rumors of CBS and Viacom’s upcoming merger, which could see the fractured Star Trek IP reuniting. There are also casting issues to take into consideration, like the fact that Chris Pine himself is not committed to a fourth Star Trek film, after walking away from negotiations last year.

It’s clear that while the idea of a Tarantino Trek is generating a lot of buzz - including on this show - it’s an awfully long way from becoming a reality.