Paramount has struggled to get a Star Trek movie together since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond underperformed. Since then, the fourth (and likely final) Abramsverse film has been in development hell. As a result, it looks like the next Star Trek movie will be yet another origin story. The reasoning behind this is so that newcomers can have an entry point to the franchise that doesn’t require previous knowledge. Unfortunately, it does so at the cost of almost 70 years of fans who are tired of seeing Star Trek stuck in neutral.
We don’t need another Star Trek origin story
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the next Star Trek movie is a prequel that focuses on humanity’s first contact with aliens and how the Federation was formed. This origin story is rumored to take place predominantly on Earth, and (as mentioned above) the studio sees it as an entry point for new fans.
If the plans for this film pan out, it will be the fifth “entry-point” in the franchise, joining:
- The Original Series
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Star Trek (2009)
- Star Trek: Discovery
Aside from The Original Series, which didn’t have to worry about established canon, these were each touted as a way to introduce new fans to Star Trek without confusing them with decades of canon.
The Next Generation succeeded by placing the series 100 years ahead of the exploits of Kirk and Spock. Sure, there were plenty of references to The Original Series. Still, the writing was good enough to catch you up quickly, and the series wasn’t dependent on nostalgia to attract viewers.
Star Trek (2009) side-stepped canon entirely by creating a separate timeline, but not without making the horrible decision to blow up Romulus in the prime timeline.
Finally, Discovery blunt-forced its way into the canon with awkward cameos and retcons. Fortunately, the writers realized why The Next Generation’s formula worked and propelled Burnham and crew almost a thousand years into the future where they couldn’t do any more harm.
Even Star Trek: Picard, which was created entirely to lure in TNG fans, was incredibly afraid to tap into existing canon outside of a superficial level. The first two seasons introduced us to an absolutely nonsensical grimdark future, and managed to kill Data and several beloved secondary characters from previous series and ruin the Borg. However, in Season 3, Terry Matalas took over as showrunner and penned a love letter to The Next Generation, which, while flawed, is the sole instance that NuTrek has spoken directly to long-time fans. In return, Matalas generated massive support for a “Star Trek Legacy” spin-off, picking up the story where Picard ended.
When The Original Series was canceled after Season 3, the negative reaction was so severe that it essentially created the first fandom. Unfortunately, the Star Trek origin movie and the upcoming Starfleet Academy series indicate that those in charge of the franchise are obsessed with finding new fans instead of nurturing existing ones. Instead of pushing the franchise forward with a series rooted firmly in 70 years of canon by producing something like the proposed Star Trek Legacy, we’ll continue to get entry-level projects.
The future of Star Trek is looking bleak in a way it hasn’t since the cancellation of Enterprise. Strange New Worlds will likely wrap after Season 5 if it follows the pattern we’ve seen with Lower Decks and Discovery. With the sale of Paramount to Skydance, it’s up in the air as to whether any of the current plans for the franchise will come to fruition. The best-case scenario is that we get someone running that franchise who realizes that hitting rewind on Star Trek every 10 years isn’t the best way forward. In the worst case, we’ll see it go dormant again.