New Star Trek Movie Officially Happening, Discovery Writer In Charge
Star Trek is getting a new feature length movie coming soon. And an established Star Trek: Discovery writer is penning the script.
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Star Trek, as a franchise, is going through a major moment right now. It’s seen a massive resurgence lately thanks to a slew of streaming service shows that have been popping off in recent years. But the expansion of the world, or in this case the universe, isn’t going to be confined to just the small screen. There’s massive news today with the announcement that a new movie is on the way. Kalinda Vazquez just struck a deal with the production company Bad Robot to pen a totally original script for a movie. What cool news for the franchise that will have an established voice putting together a brand new film.
There isn’t much in the way of news on what this Star Trek movie will encompass or even what kind of timeline it’s taking on. But the idea of Kalinda Vazquez penning the script was enough for JJ Abrams and Bad Robot to give the green light. She does have some work already with the franchise, having written for the CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery. She penned the episode “Terra Firma Part 2” which was the tenth episode of Season 3. She’s also been a consulting producer on the show for the second half of the third season. So there is definitely some background there with the franchise. It doesn’t appear her new movie will overlap with the Discovery timeline, though that’s not set.
Putting Kalinda Vazquez in charge of the Star Trek script should lend a totally new voice to the franchise and her star is most definitely on the rise. In addition to the aforementioned Discovery work, she’s also set to pen and executive produce a new show for HBO, Roadmarks. It’s based on the science fiction novel Roger Zelazny and she’ll be working with Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin. She’s also worked on Marvel’s Runaways as well as Fear the Walking Dead. So she’s got plenty of chops in the fantasy/ science fiction world already.
Those jones-ing for a new Star Trek movie to hit the big screen have had to exhibit a great deal of patience. The last time we saw any starship crew in a feature-length film was back in 2016 with Star Trek Beyond. Justin Lin’s film had Chris Pine as Captain Kirk in the big chair with some other familiar faces reprising roles from the original show. That flick failed to deliver in a huge way at the box office, scoring *just* $344 million on its $185 million budget. The performance put the franchise in a holding pattern with things looking less and less likely it would be coming back in any meaningful way. Quentin Tarantino had been rumored about a new movie, possibly even with the Pine-led cast, but those have failed to gain a lot of traction.
There’s been a reason to get excited for a new Star Trek movie in the short-term as well. The streaming platform has been committed to a number of programs that have greatly expanded the universe. Shows like Discovery and Star Trek: Picard have helped pave the way for new shows coming out which include Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Prodigy. Sure, it seemed like Star Trek was going fully small screen.
But this latest news has a big-screen moment on its way. It’s an incredibly exciting time to be a Star Trek fan with something for everyone in the franchise. Soon that will include a new movie from a true writing talent. The franchise only continues to grow.
