‘Crimson Tide’ meets ‘Training Day’ — yes, really — in a ‘Star Trek’ reboot, now official
Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley are taking a leaf from two Denzel Washington films to widen the net — but which ones?
Here we go again. After a solid ten years of Star Trek 4 development hell — scripts scrapped, directors in and out, Chris Pine’s agent presumably on speed-dial — Paramount Pictures has finally decided to cut its losses and just reboot the whole thing.
Paramount finally hired fresh directors — Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley — in November 2025. That’s after a full decade failing to launch Star Trek 4.
This time, we’re not getting Chris Pine’s Kirk or Zachary Quinto’s Spock. The upcoming film is a proper restart, with an all-new crew of characters, and, if you care about timelines (which longtime fans definitely do), it’s ditching the Kelvin timeline entirely. Yes, we’re in for a clean slate.
The Inspiration: Not What You’d Guess
Goldstein and Daley, best known for shepherding Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves to better-than-expected box office, have just started dropping hints about what this new Star Trek might actually feel like. In an interview with The Playlist (while plugging their latest, Mayday), they properly opened up on how they’re thinking about the next film. It’s not 'Wrath of Khan', it’s not Abrams-glare. No, they’re looking at… Training Day and Crimson Tide.
Yep, they said that out loud: 'Our approach is to really look at it from a question of, what is this institution of Starfleet that’s at the heart of Star Trek, and what would happen if all is not well in that institution? The movie that we talk about as the comp is Training Day,' Goldstein told The Playlist.
Goldstein explained their thinking: 'We’re less focused on, like, what continuity we’re in, which timeline. It’s more about how do we bring this franchise to audiences that don’t necessarily consider themselves Trekkies? What can we do that hasn’t been done before?'
The other standout touchstone is Crimson Tide. So the vibe is: corrupt, broken institutions; leadership clashes; and a bold look at power gone off the rails. Both of those thrillers centre on a brutal tug-of-war between senior officers and their underlings — Denzel Washington being the link, but the real through-line is the disintegration of trust at the top. Definitely a more adversarial dynamic than the classic Kirk-and-Spock mutual respect gig. Imagine Starfleet if it were run by Alonzo Harris and Captain Ramsey. Comforting.
Shaken Foundations
The idea of Starfleet being compromised or morally suspect isn’t entirely new (anyone who sat through Star Trek Into Darkness remembers Section 31 and Admiral Marcus all too well), but Goldstein and Daley are clearly planning to ramp up the tension, and not just as lip service. Instead, the new film will let them tear into Starfleet's shiny reputation, deconstructing the whole 'utopian future' business to see if there’s something more dramatic — or properly unpredictable — left in the universe. The question now is whether they can make a Trek that appeals to people who’ve never once quoted Scotty. If nothing else, it’ll be a very different sort of starfleet shuffle.