Talking About Star Trek: RIP Kelvin Timeline - How long will the current Star Trek movie franchise continue?

How long will the current Star Trek movie franchise continue?

If you’re referring to the Kelvin timeline films (Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Star Trek Beyond, the “current Star Trek movie franchise” is - for all intents and purposes - dead and buried.

There are several reasons for this, but it all boils down to this: even though the cast was pretty good, the special effects well-done, and the initial concept was interesting (how to tell a “prequel’ story without the usual problems that prequels have), the Kelvin Trilogy just didn’t jive with the rest of the Star Trek franchise.

Although I liked the basic idea that Nero and his monstrous ship, the Narada, travel back in time to the 23rd Century and alter the destinies of James T. Kirk and Crew, the execution was, to put it simply, problematic. In the Prime Timeline (aka Star Trek prior to 2009), Kirk is older than most of the bridge crew, with his only contemporaries being First Officer Spock, Chief Engineer Scott, and Chief Medical Officer McCoy. (And of those, Scotty and Bones are at least 10 years older than the good Captain, who was in his 30s during the original five-year mission.)

In the Kelvin Trilogy, not only does Kirk lose his father prematurely - a fact that the movie acknowledges via dialogue from Spock Prime (Leonard Nimoy) -but all of a sudden he’s in the same age group as Nyota Uhura, Hikaru Sulu, and just a bit older than Pavel Chekov. Spock and McCoy are still a bit older than Kirk, but not by much, and they are all at Starfleet Academy together, along with the Enterprise’s younger bridge officers. The only one of the Big Four who is not a cadet or Starfleet Academy instructor in Star Trek (2009) is Scotty, and he is introduced as someone who has been banished to an ice planet after losing an Admiral’s beloved beagle in a transporter mishap.

I’m not going to go over everything that “new Trek” got wrong with the Kelvin Timeline. Suffice it to say that too many of the details were incongruously wrong, and that by doing the second film as a retelling of Star Trek II with some weird role reversal bits added in for good measure, the reboot crew led by J.J. Abrams shot itself in the proverbial foot with a standard-issue Phaser I hand weapon.

In addition, Chris Pine (one of the few good elements of the Kelvin Timeline movies) became a much-in-demand actor between Star Trek and Star Trek Beyond. Apparently, he was willing to go back to the Paramount lot and reprise his role of Capt. Kirk for a fourth and possibly even a fifth film, so he and Zachary Quinto (Spock) negotiated with the studio for a certain sum before the release of Star Trek Beyond.

Unfortunately, Star Trek Beyond underperformed during its theatrical run. In turn, Paramount slashed the budget for the next film, which resulted in reductions to the cast’s salaries. Pine - rightly or wrongly - balked at this and said “Thanks, but no thanks. I’m worth more than this,” and walked away.

I’m not up to speed on what the rest of the cast decided, but without Pine as Kirk or Chris Hemsworth as his dad (the plan was to somehow bring George Kirk into the film somehow), the fourth film’s fate was sealed. Without Capt. Kirk on board, the Enterprise was basically moored in Spacedock, its five-year mission forever on hold.