Star Trek 4 Takes Another Step Toward Sending Off The Reboot's Cast In Style

After years of development issues, Star Trek 4 has reportedly found a new screenwriter in The Flight Attendant co-creator Steve Yockey. Paramount Pictures supposedly still sees the project as a film finale for the cast--like Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and Zoe Saldana--who rebooted the franchise with 2009's Star Trek.

Variety reports Yockey will be tasked with sending off this crew in style with Star Trek 4, though Paramount is staying mum on the story. It's apparently expected that Simon Pegg (chief engineer Montgomery Scott), Karl Urban (Dr. McCoy), and John Cho (Sulu) will return as well.

Before The Flight Attendant, Yockey has written for TV shows like Supernatural and Scream. As for Star Trek 4, WandaVision's Matt Shakman was the most recent director attached to the project before departing for Marvel's The Fantastic Four. Since then, it's been relatively quiet regarding the project.

But Paramount has been trying to get the movie off the ground for a long time. In fact, in 2019, Star Trek 4 was shelved because director SJ Clarkson left the project for Game of Thrones. In 2018, it was reported contract negotiations broke down with Pine and Chris Hemsworth, who played Kirk's father in the 2009 reboot. There are no signs that Hemsworth will be a part of this new iteration of Star Trek 4.

In addition to this film, Paramount is also working on another new Star Trek movie from Andor director Toby Haynes and The Lego Batman Movie writer Seth Grahame-Smith. It is reported to serve as an origin story for the franchise with an entirely new cast.

Star Trek Beyond was the last film in the franchise and raked in over $343 million worldwide, per BoxOfficeMojo. That figure was lower than the prior two movies: Star Trek Into Darkness made roughly $467 million, while Star Trek hauled in $385 million.