I Can't Believe A Comment from Chris Pine May Have Ruined Noah Hawley's Star Trek Movie

It has been years since a Star Trek movie graced theaters, despite multiple attempts to revive the franchise. Paramount has struggled with repeated delays over the past decade, and even when 2025 brought the release of Section 31 on Paramount+, another film by Noah Hawley never came to fruitionpossibly due to a remark involving Chris Pine.

After gaining attention with his 2025 FX series Alien: Earth, Hawley shared in an interview with SFF Gazette how close his Star Trek project came to happening before it was ultimately halted:

"I signed on after 'Lucy in the Sky'; I thought, 'I like this, I want to try something bigger.' I pitched an original idea to Paramount. It wasnt about Chris Pine or anything. They loved it and we started prepping..."

Hawley revealed the project advanced further than most realized, including initial plans for shooting locations. However, a leadership change at the studio stopped progress:

"I was going to move to Australia. We were booking stages. Then Jim Gianopulos, who was running the studio, brought in someone else to take over, and their first action was to cancel the original Star Trek movie, questioning if audiences would respond."

This sheds light on why the fourth Kelvin Star Trek movie remained stuck in development for so long. Paramount had repeatedly hesitated to return the franchise to theaters, including greenlighting an origin story after Hawley's version was shelved, which has seen little follow-up.

Currently, Paramount Skydance has enlisted John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein to develop a fresh Star Trek film independent of prior entries. Ironically, Hawleys earlier comment about Chris Pine may have contributed to his project being canceled:

"Shouldnt we do a transition movie from Chris Pines cast, play it safe?"

Six years later, Paramount appears to be moving forward in the direction Hawley had originally envisioned. Back then, hopes lingered for a reunion of Chris Pine and the Kelvin crew, but scheduling conflicts for Pine, Zo Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, and Simon Pegg made a fourth installment impractical.

Had Paramount pursued Hawleys script, filming in Australia might have been possible. Now, fans are left anticipating concrete plans for a new Star Trek film, potentially seeing production start before the end of 2026. Stories like this illustrate the unpredictable nature of Hollywoods approach to beloved franchises, leaving hope that a fresh cinematic Star Trek adventure finally hits the big screen.

Author: Sophia Brooks