Michael Dorn on His Final Star Trek Movie: “It did feel like the last one” Because “People’s tastes were changing”
Michael Dorn, who found worldwide fame as Worf in the Star Trek franchise, revealed that he didn’t reprise his role because of people’s taste change!
Well, it is quite evident that people’s tastes are changing, with audience members watching almost everything that comes in theaters and hating most of it, and loving some movies that were really well-made.
However, this change isn’t a new thing since Michael Dorn, who starred in the Star Trek franchise for years, had thought of this taste change 23 years ago when he starred in Star Trek: Nemesis! That is why the actor didn’t appear in further Star Trek films after the 2002 movie.
Michael Dorn knew that the audience’s taste was changing
In 1987, the world was introduced to Sir Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes’ Star Trek: The Next Generation, which, as the title suggests, was a sequel to the original 1966 show Star Trek: The Original Series.
In the 1987 show, Michael Dorn was introduced as the character of Worf, a Klingon, which fans loved to see. As the series progressed, Michael Dorn’s fame as Worf grew alongside the show.
However, in 2002, the actor reprised his role of Worf in a film titled Star Trek: Nemesis, and that was the end of it. The actor didn’t pick up the role again, and in a recent interview with Trek Movie, the actor revealed that it was because people’s taste in movies was changing.
For me, at least, it [Star Trek: Nemesis] did feel like the last one. Because I think that the business was changing. People’s tastes were changing. We had been on the screen for 15 years or something.
He continued,
I thought, “I think this is going to be it,” for no other reason than I think things are changing. We had already had three or four spin-offs. And there was a kind of a thought that maybe one of the spin-offs was going to start the next movie, but we didn’t know.
Well, it was Paramount who put in all the money to develop the Star Trek franchise further into the global pop cultural phenomenon that it is today. However, you don’t build Rome in a day.
There was a time when, according to Michael Dorn, Paramount wanted to get out of the whole Star Trek: The Next Generation business, and it was during this time that Dorn had his last portrayal as Worf.
Michael Dorn thinks that Paramount wanted to be done with Star Trek
Of course, as the Star Trek movies weren’t received with a whole lot of money like some of the other movies, Paramount had to consider the possibility of changing their strategy.
As Dorn further talked about the audience’s taste and what people wanted to see, he also insinuated that Paramount also allegedly wanted to get out of the whole Star Trek: The Next Generation business.
I think what happened is the movie didn’t perform as well as, as they had hoped, and that was sort of, ‘Okay, that’s it.’ I did feel in a way that Paramount was just kind of going, ‘Oh, thank God these guys are done.’ They couldn’t wait to sell off everything and get out of the Star Trek: The Next Generation business.
Well, the actor was right since, according to IMDb, the film earned a total of $67 million against a budget of $60 million at the global box office and barely managed to break even.
In present times, too, Star Trek: Nemesis is seen as one of the lower-rated films in the franchise of all time. The film currently stands at a rating of 6.4/10 on IMDb and a low of 38% on Rotten Tomatoes.
