“Star Trek Origin” Movie Reportedly Headed To Greenlight For Production Start In Early 2025
Last week news broke in the Hollywood trades that writer/producer/director Simon Kinberg – known for several films in the X-Men franchise – had been tapped by Disney/Lucasfilm to write and produce a new Star Wars trilogy of movies. The Trek connection is that earlier this year Kinberg was attached to Paramount’s next Star Trek feature film, which still is the case according to the latest reports.
Origin movie “on its way”
As we have been reporting, the next Star Trek movie Paramount is planning is the “Untitled Star Trek Origin Movie,” which they announced as part of the 2026 slate earlier this year. Toby Haynes is directing, with Seth Grahame-Smith as screenwriter. Kinberg is attached to produce along with J.J. Abrams, but apparently the Star Wars news isn’t going to be a factor. According to the reliable Puck newsletter, Kinberg’s Star Wars obligations would “need to wait” for the Star Trek project.
Puck reports on the status of the “Star Trek Origin” movie:
According to two sources, the new Trek script, by Seth Grahame-Smith, is done and on its way toward a green light, possibly by the end of the year, for a shoot in the first half of 2025. Toby Haynes (Andor) is directing the origin story, set well before the U.S.S. Enterprise era.
Of course we have been down this road before, with several starts and stops to bring Trek back to the big screen for almost a decade now. But Paramount did put the origin movie project on their upcoming lineup and if production can start in early 2025, they could get a movie into theaters by 2026, just in time for the 60th anniversary. It has previously been reported the origin movie will have a new cast for “a prequel focusing on humanity’s early contact with aliens and the formation of the Federation,” and it will be set mostly on Earth. In May Variety reported, “the film is intended as an origin story for the main timeline of the ‘Star Trek’ franchise (rather than the alternate Kelvin timeline, started with 2009’s “Star Trek”).”
The Trek and Wars franchises have come into conflict over creatives before, notably when J.J. Abrams signed on to write, produce and direct Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2013, while he was in post-production on his second Trek feature, Star Trek Into Darkness. That resulted in Paramount getting compensation from Disney for poaching their creative lead. However, according to Puck, Kinberg gave Paramount advanced notice of his new deal with Disney, with the Star Wars project reportedly “far, far away from happening.”
Kinberg has been reported to also be set to “shepherd” the Star Trek film franchise, with the origin movie just the start of the franchise’s return to the big screen. It’s unclear how he can juggle doing that along with developing a Star Wars trilogy of films at the same time. And it isn’t as if Kinberg has a lot of free time. He is coming off executive producing Deadpool & Wolverine, and he is attached to several upcoming projects as a producer including reboots of Logan’s Run and The Running Man. However, it’s worth noting that the Disney/Lucasfilm has been running through creatives for potential Star Wars movies faster than Paramount has for Trek, so Kinberg could find himself with more availability if his attempt becomes the latest in a long line of aborted projects in that galaxy far, far away.
BTW: Star Trek 4 is still a thing
The origin movie is set to be the next Star Trek feature, but Paramount has also confirmed development on one final film for the Kelvin Universe crew, led by Chris Pine as James T. Kirk. The latest update came in March when writer Steve Yockey was hired to take the latest crack at a script. Since then there have been a few comments from members of the cast (including Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and Zoe Saldana) who remain committed to reunite one last time, but also curious as to how the film will deal with the time gap since their last outing in 2016’s Star Trek Beyond.
