Chris Pine Talks “Star Trek 4” Development And Expectations

There has been a lot of news regarding the Star Trek franchise lately, such as the main Next Generation cast returning for Picard season 3, and Paramount dropping the first trailer for Strange New Worlds. However, one of the most exciting announcements has been that a fourth film in the Abrams-era movies is in development.

This is particularly notable because the film franchise has been stalled for the last several years, with last entry, 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, being a hit with critics but falling short at the box office. As a result, plans have been constantly shifting, with several different options being floated, with even Quentin Tarantino taking a stab with an original story.

And while things are definitely moving forward, Star Trek 4 is still a long way off, with most of the cast not even locked into contract. In fact, Captain Kirk himself, actor Chris Pine, recently opened up during an interview with Deadline about the announcement and his expectations, commenting that:

Conceptually, I love it. I love Star Trek. Again, I love the messaging of it. I love the character. I love my friends with whom I get to play. It’s a great gig. You know, I think Star Trek for me, it’s an interesting one. We always tried to get the huge international market. It was always about making the billion dollars. It was always this billion-dollar mark because Marvel was making a billion. Billion, billion, billion. We struggled with it because Star Trek, for whatever reason, its core audience is rabid. Like rabid, as you know. To get these people that are interested that maybe are Star Wars fans or think Star Trek is not cool or whatever, proven to be … we’ve definitely done a good job of it but not the billion-dollar kind of job that they want.

Star Trek 4 is currently being planned for a December 2023 release, but as yet there is no production schedule. However, the project seems like a priority for Paramount, so they’ll likely be organizing everything quickly, with more announcements coming out over the next few months.