Development of Star Trek 4

In December 2017, Quentin Tarantino pitched his own idea for a new Star Trek film to producer J. J. Abrams, and development began separately from the Beyond sequel.

Tarantino revealed in January 2020 that he had decided not to direct his Star Trek film, and Hawley's version was placed on hold that August by new Paramount executives.

Kalinda Vazquez was set to write the script for a new film in March 2021 before Matt Shakman was hired to direct another version, written by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, that July.

This gave the actors pay rises while signing Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto to return for a fourth film in their respective roles as James T. Kirk and Spock.

[9] On July 18, Paramount Pictures officially announced the next film with the temporary title Star Trek 4 and confirmed the return of Hemsworth, Pine, and most of Beyond's cast.

[11][12] In September 2017, after a clip of this discussion resurfaced on YouTube, Tarantino was asked about directing a Star Trek film and said "it would be worth having a meeting about".

[16] That December, Tarantino approached Abrams and Paramount about an idea he had for a new Star Trek film and development on the project began at the studio.

[19] Tarantino's story was based on the Original Series episode "A Piece of the Action" (1968), which is set on an alien planet with an "Earth-like 1920s gangster culture".

[20][21] A few days after the project was revealed, Tarantino and Abrams convened a writers' room consisting of Mark L. Smith, Lindsey Beer, Drew Pearce, and Megan Amram to begin developing the idea into a film.

[31] Tarantino confirmed in May 2019 that his Star Trek film was still in development, explaining that the script had been written and he would return to the project following the release of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood that July.

[34] He also said that he was a fan of Pine's and Quinto's performances in the reboot films and wanted them to star in his film, but he wanted his story to be a direct prequel to the original Star Trek series rather than be set in the alternate Kelvin Timeline; when discussing the franchise's different timelines with Abrams, Tarantino said, "I don't understand this, I don't like it", and Abrams encouraged him to ignore them completely.

Smith also explained that the film's R-rating would have primarily come from violence and tone rather than language, as the script only used profanity a few times for "special characters to kind of drop that into the Star Trek world".

Abrams and Paramount had held an extensive search for a female director, and Clarkson would have been the first woman to direct a Star Trek film.

Payne and McKay had completed the screenplay, but Paramount had yet to sign new contracts for the main cast outside of Pine and Quinto, including Urban, Pegg, John Cho (Hikaru Sulu), and Zoe Saldaña (Nyota Uhura).

[46] At the end of the month, Urban said production for the film was expected to take place in the United Kingdom, where Clarkson is based, and that it was just waiting on negotiations with Pine and Hemsworth to resume.

Their story was inspired by the Next Generation episode "Relics" (1992) in which Montgomery Scott is discovered to be alive inside a transporter buffer many years after his presumed death.

In Payne and McKay's script, the Enterprise crew explore the wreckage of the USS Kelvin from the first reboot film and discover that George Kirk saved a copy of himself before the ship exploded, allowing him to now interact with his son.

[51] Noah Hawley was hired to write and direct a new Star Trek film for Paramount in November 2019, which he would have produced under his 26 Keys Production company alongside Abrams.

[53] He added that calling the film Star Trek 4 was a misnomer and reports of the Beyond cast returning were not necessarily correct, explaining that he had approached Paramount with his own vision for the franchise that was going in a new direction and would likely involve new characters.

[58] Hawley was still working on the film in May, during the COVID-19 pandemic,[59] but it was placed on hold in August by new Paramount Pictures president Emma Watts, whose top priority was to figure out the direction of the Star Trek franchise.

[64] Quinto echoed this sentiment the next month, noting that multiple new Star Trek television series had been produced since Beyond was released, including Discovery and Picard, and stating that he was no longer expecting a fourth film to be made with the reboot cast.

Sallin discussed his concept with Paramount, but was told that the studio would not consider any other pitches for Star Trek films while they were working with Hawley.

[67] Also during 2020, The Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer wrote a detailed proposal with his producing partner Steven-Charles Jaffe for a new Star Trek project, including a treatment and illustrations.

Meyer said the project was not connected to any of the franchise's previous films and was set in a gap in the Star Trek timeline where an original story could be told with new characters.

[68] At that time, Paramount hired Discovery writer Kalinda Vazquez to write a new Star Trek film based on her own original idea, with Abrams's Bad Robot producing.

[74] Due to the length of time with no new Star Trek films after Beyond, the studio did market research to determine whether audiences were still interested in the previous cast.

[77] The announcement was considered to be a breakthrough following the previous failed attempts to continue the franchise,[77] but it came as a surprise to the actors and their agents as negotiations had not yet begun for their return.

Star Trek was considered to be a key franchise in the service's international expansion due to its science fiction storytelling and diverse cast.

He said it would be wonderful if another film was made and highlighted the friendships among the cast, but if this did not happen then they "had a great run" and he was happy to see Ethan Peck portraying Spock in the series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022–present).

The fact that production was underway on Paramount+'s Section 31 was considered an "awkward contrast" with the lack of progress on the franchise's next feature film in the nearly 10 years since Beyond was released.