‘Star Trek 4’ Still in the Works as Paramount Sets New Origin Story Film

A new “Star Trek” film is in the works at Paramount with “Andor’s” Toby Haynes on board to direct and Seth Grahame-Smith penning the script, Variety has confirmed.

While plot details are being kept under wraps, the upcoming feature will be an origin story that is set decades before 2009’s “Star Trek,” as well as an expansion of the “Star Trek” universe. J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot is producing.

Meanwhile, the fourth installment of the rebooted “Star Trek” film series remains in development, with the studio describing it as the “final chapter.” In the third film, 2016’s “Star Trek Beyond,” the crew of the USS Enterprise crash-lands on a mysterious world after being attacked by the lizard-like dictator Krall (Idris Elba).

A fourth “Star Trek” movie starring Chris Pine was first announced in July of 2016, with Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho and Simon Pegg expected to return. Chris Hemsworth, who appeared in the 2009 original, was set to return to the space saga as George Kirk, the father of Captain James T. Kirk (Pine). According to Paramount at the time, “Star Trek 4” would see Pine’s Captain Kirk cross paths with his father, who was “a man he never had a chance to meet, but whose legacy has haunted him since the day he was born.”

During a Paramount Global investors day presentation in February of 2022, Abrams announced that a new “Star Trek” movie would begin shooting by the…