Fans will be waiting longer than expected for the fourth “Star Trek” movie.
Earlier this year, J.J. Abrams — who directed 2009’s “Star Trek” and 2013’s “Star Trek: Into Darkness” and is producer of the franchise — announced that another “Trek” film was in development, with talks in progress with stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, John Cho and Simon Pegg to reprise their roles.
“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 and some new characters that I think are going to be really fun and exciting and help take ‘Star Trek’ into areas that you’ve just never seen before,” Abrams said in February during the ViacomCBS investor presentation.
READ MORE: J.J. Abrams Confirms New ‘Star Trek’ Film In The Works, Will Go Into Production This Year
At the time Matt Shakman, whose credits include “Game of Thrones” and “WandaVision”, was attached to direct; last month, however, he parted ways with the project. “Matt Shakman is an incredibly talented filmmaker, and we regret the timing didn’t align for him to direct our upcoming ‘Star Trek’ film,” said Paramount Pictures in a statement to Deadline. “We are grateful for his many contributions, are excited about the creative vision of this next chapter and look forward to bringing it to audiences all around world.”
Now, Deadline is reporting that Shakman’s departure has derailed the project, at least temporarily, quashing Abrams’ prediction that production would begin sometime in 2022.
READ MORE: Chris Hemsworth Is Down For Another ‘Star Trek’ Movie
As a result, Paramount has removed the film from its schedule of upcoming releases, indicating the film will not be released on Dec. 22, 2023, as had previously been announced.
