Next Star Trek Film to Be Directed by WandaVision’s Matt Shakman

 

It's time to go boldly where no man has gone before… as Matt Shakman has been appointed as director on the next feature Star Trek film. This news comes from Deadline who reports that Shakman will be moving forward on this project with Paramount and Bad Robot’s J.J Abrams at warp speed as the film is set to begin filming in the spring of next year with a script by Linsdey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet. Shakman recently helmed Marvel/Disney+’s WandaVision, a series that landed an earth-shattering 23 Emmy-nominations bringing Shakman to prominence which prompted multiple studios to approach Shakman with offers to attain his talents. 

 

 

Shakman chose Star Trek over multiple other offers which suggests that Shakman has a passion for the Star Trek franchise and if he brings the same sort of energy and brilliant storytelling that critics say he brought to WandaVision this new Star Trek picture may end up being a promising one. I have yet to see Disney+’s WandaVison, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about it, and following the departures of multiple directors from the Star Trek 4 project I can only hope that with the recent change in management over at Paramount, Emma Watt’s push to land Shakman following her declared intention to focus on Star Trek at the studio will be the right move forward for the franchise. The script from Captain Marvel writer Robertson-Dworet promises to at the very least be an original science fiction story with a lot of heart and humanity to it and while I'm unfamiliar with Beer's work, Sylvester Stallone didn't exactly have a lot of clout when he wrote the first Rocky movie so theirs that.

 

 

What remains unclear with this project is whether it will be a sequel to Star Trek Beyond (2016) and feature the return of Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and Karl Urban back as Kirk, Spock, and Bones respectively along with the rest of the crew or whether this will be a reboot or entirely new Star Trek universe story altogether that has nothing to do with the Enterprise. Star Trek (2009), the reboot of the franchise spearheaded by J.J. Abrams was a spectacular and ambitious movie that managed to breathe new life into the franchise with exciting storytelling while also capturing the themes and spirit of Star Trek from the original 1960s TV series. Its sequel Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013), wasn’t quite worth the extended 4-year-wait as it turned out to be a good action movie but not necessarily a good “Star Trek” movie. By that I mean it felt like the end of the reboot which promised the beginning of the exploration of strange new worlds and so forth in keeping with the premise of the original series following the epic and monumental events of the timeline-rebooting first installment were regressed upon as Kirk was demoted and his mission quickly went from exploration to a vengeful hunt against a remake of the classic character Khan. Star Trek Into Darkness’s ending did end with hope though as Kirk was assigned to the classic 5-year mission that Kirk and his crew embarked on in the Original Series so it seemed like finally the series would evolve from its Star Wars-esque action reboot roots to a more traditional Star Trek feel in the third installment. However, Star Trek Beyond underwhelmed me as it felt partly like a Guardians of the Galaxy rip-off and emphasized style and action over good storytelling. I’m not saying Star Trek Beyond was all bad and I do appreciate the nods to original Star Trek in certain dialogue exchanges that went on courtesy of the screenwriter and Scotty himself Simon Pegg but I didn’t concur with others who felt that Star Trek Beyond fused the best of old and new Trek together as I just didn’t feel it hit the mark for me. 

 

 

Now assuming that Shakman’s new Star Trek film will indeed be a sequel to Star Trek Beyond utilizing Chris Pine and the rest of the cast and filming does start next year for a 2023 release the film would be coming out 7 years after the last installment. That's a long hiatus that's almost as long as the span of time between the cancellation of the original series in ‘69 and Star Trek: The Motion Picture in ‘79. However, if Shakman actually stays onboard versus departing like previously attached directors including Noah Hawley and Quentin Tarantino (who never actually committed to directing/just producing) then this could be a great vehicle to see Chris Pine return in as Kirk. The original reboot films focused on a young Captain Kirk and now Chris Pine in his 40s would be 43 by the time of this film’s release so Star Trek 4 would need to shift gears to focus on a more seasoned Captain Kirk perhaps in middle age in a post-5-year mission landscape. The story could possibly find Kirk and his crew all off doing their own thing post their original 5-year mission only to have to reassemble for a new mission which will require all of them to come back together for an epic new journey that will take them through the next 10 + years of their lives in the same vein as the Original Series movies. Chris Pine is a great actor proving that in the Star Trek films and a multitude of other projects with versatile performances in films such as the action-comedy This Means War (2012), Finest Hours (2016), and even Princess Diaries 2 (2004). His most recent blockbuster hits have been the Wonder Woman franchise where he has portrayed Steve Trevor, the everyman spy and love of Wonder Woman’s life. His return in Wonder Woman 3 is uncertain as it’s difficult to determine how he would return without undermining the stakes of the film but his return to the Star Trek franchise would certainly be welcome as he excelled in all 3 of his films as Kirk differentiating himself from Shattner while also paying homage to him at the same time. Zachary Quinto who is recognizable from his time on 24 Season 3 brought us a different version of Spock with a new layer of humanity to him unexplored in the Original Series which could continue to be explored in new ways with the story possibly following an aging Spock who must decide if he wants to be the more the logical creature his doppelganger from the Original Series was (Leonard Nimoy who appeared in the J.J. Abrams reboot) or to embrace his humanity for the better. Karl Urban’s version of Bones is certainly a delight to watch onscreen and moving forward Urban could portray the character in future movies as he progresses into a more morally complicated individual dealing with medical ethics in a 23rd-century setting taking advantage of Urban’s visceral edge as proven by his performance as the tough as nails CIA Agent William Cooper in RED (2010). 

 

 

A lot is going on in the Star Trek universe these days with multiple shows running including Picard, and now Shakman is going to be helming the next iteration of the franchise in the feature film space. One can only hope that he will be able to boldly go where no one has gone before… without forgetting what made the Original Series so great in the first place.