Star Trek 4 Pulled from 2023 Release Date

J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek films have been halted for a while after Star Trek Beyond, but things had started to get cooking again recently when the fourth movie was announced for a 2023 release. Bad news is, it looks like Trek will have to go on hiatus again.

According to Variety, Paramount Pictures has decided to pull Star Trek 4 from its December 2023 release date. This comes after the news that Matt Shakman was hired to direct Fantastic Four for Marvel—Shakman was originally on board to direct Trek for Paramount, but decided to leave when Marvel offered him the F4 gig.

The film would have seen the fourth entry in the Kelvin timeline of Star Trek and would have brought back actors Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho, and Simon Pegg. The only principal cast member who would not be returning is Anton Yelchin (Chekov) who tragically died back in 2016.

Admittedly, this fourth film has been having a hard time getting off the ground, with multiple changes in directors and even some issues with actors. If anything, Beyond was gearing up for a time travel story that would have Chris Hemsworth reprise the role of Kirk’s father, but plans didn’t push through and Hemsworth had not heard from the film since.

With Trek having new life in television with multiple spinoffs like Discovery, Strange New Worlds, Picard, and Lower Decks, it is kind of odd that the film side has been having a hard time coming back. Hopefully Paramount does get the wheels churning once more, because this is personally my favorite Trek brand, and I love watching the cast together.

Star Trek 4 has no current release date.