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To the surprise of almost everyone , Star Trek 4is happening - and it still has the chance to be a great movie . The parallel universe of discourse films - known to fans as the Kelvin timeline - starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto as Kirk and Spock willreturn for a fourth outing with a unexampled theater director - FargoandLegionmastermind Noah Hawley . Despite the decisive and fiscal bankruptcy of his first feature plastic film , Lucy In The Sky , Hawley is one of the most dynamic , unpredictable fibber work today , and lease him loose on the world ofStar Trekseems like an chance for some truly original adventures in the final frontier .
The cardinal question about this pic has little to do with its talent or storey , but rather whether or not it ’s even a proficient theme for it to exist . The lastStar Trekfilm , 2016’sStar Trek Beyond , was warmly greeted by critics and Trek fans , but wasa box office disappointment . Star Trekas a enfranchisement is in a very different blank space than it was just three twelvemonth ago;Star Trek : Discoverywas still in the middle of its chaotic nascence , whileStar Trek : Picardwas an abyssal pipe dreaming .
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There ’s also the realness that the franchise ’s incarnate overlord are united again for the first time in well over a tenner , meaning there can be synergism with the film and TV demonstrate again , something one would assume CBS and Paramount are salivate over in this age of shared universe hysteria . So why go back to the Kelvin timeline now ? There are both good reasons and speculative ones for revisit the lens solar flare Enterprise , and we ’re damp down what it needs to do to be a success .
Star Trek’s Future Is Currently On TV
Star Trek’sroots are in television system , and the small covert has always been its most natural home . After a twelve twelvemonth absence seizure , Star Trekreturned to TV in 2017 withDiscovery . WhileDiscoveryhas show polarizing amongStar Trekfans - mostStar Trekseries are , to be mediocre - it ’s become a tremendous success , reaching unexampled heights of popularity peculiarly in itsPike - centrical second season . Discovery’ssuccess has naturally go to plans for small screenland expansion , with several young show currently in development , includingLower Decks , an animated adult funniness fromRick and Mortywriter Mike McMahan , and a Section 31 spinoff starring Michelle Yeoh ’s Mirror Universe renegade Phillipa Georgiou .
Arguably the biggest - and inarguably the most call by fans - however , isStar Trek : Picard . Thereturn of Patrick Stewartto the franchise that made him a menage name over 30 years ago feels like an event , and two gripping trailers have done nothing but build the hype and delirious expectancy even further . Notably , it ’s the first undertaking that will move the franchise ’s timeline frontward since the last clock time Stewart put on his place suit in 2002’sStar Trek Nemesis . There ’s an excitement and uncertainty to crusade into the unknown ofStar Trek’sfuture that ’s simply more creatively potent and interesting than reboots or prequels .
DespiteStar Trek ’s natural home being television , there are still plenty of great movies too , including a couple of the Kelvin timeline photographic film , and it ’s not like Paramount is simply going to barricade makingStar Trekfilms . But there ’s no interrogation that the vigour of the dealership , for both its creators and fan , is currently with the telecasting project .
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Why Star Trek 4 Could Fail
Star Trek 4is going to have some serious hurdle to defeat . The most obvious issue is audience tiredness with the Kelvin timeline films . Each of the Kelvin films made less money domestically than the film before it , suggesting its popularity peak with the first ( and best ) film in the trilogy . Star Trek Beyondwas well received by criticsand fans , but landed softly at the box bureau and became the firstStar Trekfilm since Nemesis that likely lost money . It almost seems as ifStar Trekis ill - fit out to take onStar Warsat the theater ; the Kelvin motion picture have often look at criticism for being action / adventure picture show in the vein of George Lucas ' monolithic sci - fi epos more than they areStar Trekstories , and the restoration ofStar Warsto box office staff dominance has render once again thatStar Trekis only not the ideal locale for that variety of straightforward , widescreen storytelling . The dealership even somewhat embarrassingly lost the director of the first two Kelvin films , JJ Abrams , toStar Wars .
Ironically , Beyondended with what could have been a nice swan call for the Kelvin timeline , with each of the Enterprise senior officer retell the " Space , the concluding frontier " oath as the newfangled initiative - A finishes construction and sail into the lead to take on fresh risky venture . It ’s almost a shame to flub the possibilities of that simple , hopeful conclusion .
Perhaps the biggest issueStar Trek 4will have to face up is a truly sombre one . Anton Yelchin - the Kelvin timeline ’s version of Ensign Pavel Chekov - died in a junky accident in 2016 . It ’s bad enough sample to imagine the Enterprise without the plucky Russian sailing master , but it ’s almost too much to imagine how the film might be force to deal with his absence seizure , as producerJJ Abrams has vowed they will not recast Chekov .
How Star Trek 4 Can Succeed
Despite the obstacles in its way , Star Trek 4still has plenty of constitutional strength . First among them , as always , is the sterling cast . Chris Pine is a much bigger star than the last sentence he donned Kirk ’s gold and dim , and rightly so ; throughWonder Woman , Hell Or High Water , andOutlaw King , he ’s more than show his versatility as a leading military man , a patronage grapheme , and a reliable source of levity . Karl Urban ’s iteration ofBoneshas always mat up like he was channelize the late DeForest Kelley ; it was magical the first time he did it and it still is . Zachary Quinto , Zoe Saldana , Simon Pegg , and Jon Cho all add spate to the table , to the point it sometimes seems like they get short shrift in these films .
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The other reason for optimism isNoah Hawley . Anyone who watchesLegionandFargoknows Hawley is a particular , generational storyteller , and letting him loose on a bad dealership like this is , frankly , something of a risky proffer for Paramount , but an exciting one for sure . Hawley is a optic wizard who still takes the time to craft to the full realized , likable characters in his sometimes labyrinthine storytelling trend . Whatever he comes up with , it ’s sure to takeStar Trekto position it has n’t been before , and you ca n’t ask for much more than that .
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Star Trekis at something of an prosody point . As the film have slid out of the public consciousness , the TV place have been ramping up . It ’s hard to judge justhow bigStar Trek : Picardcould be , but it seems poise to takeStar Trek- and CBS All Access - to new heights . In some ways , returning to the Kelvin plastic film feels like a step backward for the franchise , a vestigial limb from the franchise ’s wild eld . But there ’s still more than enough talent in front of and behind the camera to give birth a not bad flick , and maybe even one that can show that the 53 year old skill fiction innovation can still surprise its sports fan and bump new way of telling history in the 23rd century and beyond .
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