Despite once again finding great success on television, the Star Trek franchise has stalled somewhat on the big screen in recent years. For a time, it looked like we'd seen the last of the actors who brought these characters to life in the new timeline introduced in the 2009 reboot, but Paramount Pictures has finally set a plan in motion to continue that story.
Chris Pine, who played Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond, spoke to Deadline (via SFFGazette.com) and shared his take on why a new approach is needed for the series. Primarily, he believes they need to move away from trying to emulate Marvel Studios.
"We always tried to get the huge international market," Pine recalled. "It was always about making the billion dollars. It was always this billion-dollar mark because Marvel was making a billion. Billion, billion, billion. We struggled with it because Star Trek, for whatever reason, its core audience is rabid. Like rabid, as you know. To get these people that are interested that maybe are Star Wars fans or think Star Trek is not cool or whatever, proven to be...we’ve definitely done a good job of it but not the billion-dollar kind of job that they want."
"I've always thought that Star Trek should operate in the zone that is smaller. You know, it's not a Marvel appeal. It's like, let's make the movie for the people that love this group of people, that love this story, that love Star Trek. Let's make it for them and then, if people want to come to the party, great. But make it for a price and make it, so that if it makes a half-billion dollars, that's really good."
Pine is right in saying that Star Trek doesn't have the same sort of fanbase as Star Wars, and his ideas about how to best capitalise on this make sense to us. A lower budgeted project aimed at fans stands a better chance of appealing to the Trek faithful (unlike the glossy Star Trek Beyond, for example), and if it's a great movie, then non-fans are likely going to check it out, too.
The franchise has certainly increased in popularity in recent years, especially thanks to all those TV shows bringing back longtime fans and creating a fair few new ones in the process.
The next Star Trek movie doesn't currently have a release date.