New Star Trek Movie Greenlit With an All-New Crew at the Helm

Alright, Star Trek fans, get ready to adjust your phasers—Paramount just made it official: another Star Trek movie is in development. Now, I know what you're thinking, because I'm thinking it too: 'Didn't we just go through years of is-it-happening-isn't-it-happening rumors with the last crew?' We did. And this time, things are getting shaken up in a way that's actually pretty surprising.

Out with the Old Crew

First things first: if you were hoping Chris Pine and the rest of the so-called Kelvin timeline crew were gearing up for another run in Starfleet, it's time to temper those expectations. According to Paramount's latest buzz from CinemaCon (via Collider), the next Trek film isn't picking up where Star Trek Beyond left off, and there are no reunions planned for Kirk, Spock, and the gang.

To recap: the 2009 J.J. Abrams Star Trek rebooted everything with a new cast (Pine as Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, and even a Leonard Nimoy cameo for nostalgia points). That kicked off two sequels, Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond, all playing with alternate timelines and multiverse logic to keep canon loose and the options wide open.

And to be fair, these movies did pretty well for themselves in theaters and with critics—so well, in fact, that Paramount basically kept teasing us with the idea of more, even as years ticked by with zero actual movement. Plenty of A-list filmmakers (Quentin Tarantino being the wildest name in that mix, not to mention Noah Hawley and Matt Shakman) pitched their own Trek visions. But nothing really stuck.

New Faces, New Era

So here's where things get interesting. The new movie, according to Paramount, is starting fresh, with an all-new cast of characters. That's right—no more Kelvin timeline. Honestly, considering how Star Trek as a franchise isn't shy about recasting, rebooting, and even occasionally retconning itself, this isn't totally out of left field, but it does mean we're steering into uncharted territory (yes, insert 'boldly going' reference here).

We don't have details yet—no cast announced, no plot specifics, and, to be blunt, we don't even know exactly where in Star Trek's ever-expanding in-universe timeline this thing is supposed to fit. Over the past few years, Star Trek's TV side has gone everywhere from prequel to sequel to spin-off (hello, Paramount+ subscription churn). This new film could basically land anywhere on that map.

Who's at the Helm?

• Last fall, it came out that Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley—the duo behind Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves—had been tapped to develop the next Trek film. If you're familiar with their work, you know they tend to bring a lighter, more irreverent edge to genre projects, which could be a shake-up for a franchise that's taken itself very seriously lately.
• There are no guarantees they're sticking through to the end (the director's chair has been something of a revolving door for Star Trek movies recently), but their attachment does signal Paramount wants to try something different this time.

A Franchise That's Always in Motion

If all of this feels a little murky, well... that's Star Trek behind the scenes for you. It's never entirely clear what the next chapter's going to be or even which branch of Trek lore we'll be following. What we do know: the Kelvin era is officially over, the franchise loves a clean slate, and Trek fans should brace for some brand-new faces at the helm—literally and figuratively.

As one exec summed it up at CinemaCon:
'This Star Trek will go where no Star Trek has gone before—with a completely original cast of characters.'

So, start your speculation engines. This is one of those rare moments where even decades-in fans are in the dark.