The New Star Trek Movie Is In The Best Possible Hands
While certainly not the only Star Trek movie in development, news from Paramount Pictures on Wednesday of an origin film to take place in the Kelvin Timeline got a lot of fans excited, especially since the film is set to be directed by Toby Haynes. Hanes is a seasoned science fiction director whose credits include a Star Wars series, but also something just shy of an actual Star Trek episode. In 2017, he directed an episode of the critically-lauded Netflix anthology science fiction series Black Mirror that was entitled “USS Callister.”
A painstakingly crafted homage to Star Trek, the Black Mirror episode showed that Hanes has what it takes to direct a Star Trek movie, and the story of how he got the episode shows it as well. When the opportunity to direct a Trek-themed episode for Black Mirror arose, Haynes reportedly “begged” for the gig because he is an enormous Star Trek fan.
All this makes the prospect of a Star Trek movie directed by Toby Haynes an exciting one indeed, especially given his excellent work on six of the 12 episodes of the Star Wars series Andor.
As Trekkies around the world know, we usually like our Star Trek best when it is in the hands of fans (with the exception of then-novice Nicholas Meyer’s Star Trek II).
“USS Callister” actually comes closer to a Star Trek movie than an episode, running 76 minutes, which is about the runtime of a TV movie. In fact, among the episode’s seven 2018 Emmy nominations and four wins is a trophy for Outstanding Television Movie. Accolades for the episode, which holds a 95 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, include nominations for Hugo, Saturn, and BAFTA awards.
All this makes the prospect of a Star Trek movie directed by Toby Haynes an exciting one indeed, especially given his excellent work on six of the 12 episodes of the Star Wars series Andor, for which he was again nominated for an Emmy and a Hugo Award.
Whatever this new Star Trek movie looks like, Toby Haynes’ love for the franchise and enthusiasm for directing anything related to it, along with his award-winning work in science fiction, give us optimism for the next iteration of the final frontier.
He also spoke at one point of his desire to turn “USS Callister” into a series, unabashedly calling it one of the best science fiction pilots he had ever seen. But that series has yet to take shape, probably because it is such a loving tribute to Star Trek.
All of this makes Toby Haynes an exciting prospect as the director of the next Star Trek movie, though experienced Star Trek fans know to not get too excited as there have been several announced attempts at a new Star Trek movie since Star Trek Beyond.
Fans have also pointed out that there’s already a series leading up to the Kelvin timeline that depicts the founding of the Federation; it’s called Star Trek: Enterprise. Indeed, the Kelvin films link themselves to that series heavily, leading to questions regarding what parts of the story are left to tell and whether Jonathan Archer himself might make an appearance.
A painstakingly crafted homage to Star Trek, the Black Mirror episode showed that Toby Hanes has what it takes to direct a Star Trek movie, and the story of how he got the episode shows it as well.
Whatever this new Star Trek movie looks like, Toby Haynes’ love for the franchise and enthusiasm for directing anything related to it, along with his award-winning work in science fiction, give us optimism for the next iteration of the final frontier.
Meanwhile, Alex Kurtzman and Paramount+ will continue focusing on other new Star Trek films to premiere on the streaming service, including the forthcoming Section 31 movie starring Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh and perhaps a film focused on Jean-Luc Picard and the Next Generation crew. However things shake out, Star Trek fans have a lot to look forward to.
