Star Trek is one of Paramount’s most exciting franchises, but the next big move in the series is perhaps the most important and riskiest step that it has ever taken. As Star Trek: Strange New Worlds airs its fourth season, now is a pivotal time, with much to be excited about and just as much reason for concern.
Star Trek has had an influential history, producing some of the most impactful science fiction shows ever made alongside many great Star Trek movies. The jump from the original series in 1966 to the 1987 start of Star Trek: The Next Generation was an especially influential moment that made the series bigger than just one set of characters.
From there, the franchise exploded. There have been 13 Star Trek shows to date, including animated series and Star Trek: Short Treks. However, one of the most accessible iterations of the universe began in 2009, when JJ Abrams rebooted the original show’s characters in a new timeline for a series of big-screen adventures.
While Star Trek began as a television series, some of the most memorable moments in its history have come from big-budget films.
Movies like 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan are still among the greatest science fiction movies of the last 100 years, and show that there is an important future ahead for Trek on the big screen, which fortunately seems to be understood by Paramount’s recent plans.
Paramount Is Finally Rebooting Star Trek As A Movie Franchise
Late in 2025, Deadline reported that a new Star Trek feature had begun development, with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein attached as writers. This project was described as the beginning of a new era, which has since led to countless questions.
Since then, the two creatives were asked about the project at 2025’s San Diego Comic-Con, where ScreenRant was in attendance. During their panel, Goldstein gave some insight into the story:
I think we’ve said in the past…it won’t be the characters that you’ve seen previously in your Star Trek movies. So there will be a new take on that. And I think it’ll probably be a little further into the future than we’ve been before…. what draws us to it is the opportunity to do a different spin.
The prospect of strong creatives bringing a new Trek story to life on the big screen is especially exciting, but this version is unusual for several reasons. Most of all, every Trek film to date has been spun off from one of the show’s television series.
Building something wholly new is a risky move, but could also pay off extremely well. This upcoming iteration then speaks to an exciting path for the now well-trod universe in a new Star Trek timeline that has not yet been explored.
Star Trek Deserves A Proper Movie Future
Star Trek hasn’t been on the big screen since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, and that’s disappointing. The past ten years have been filled with all kinds of streaming content, including the 2025 feature Star Trek: Section 31, and series like Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard. However, Trek has been at its best when on both the big and the small screens.
Yes, Trek is primarily a television franchise. However, films like Abrams’ aforementioned Star Trek showed the big-budget potential that the series’ premise still contains. This accessible reboot, which followed in the footsteps of great films like Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek: First Contact, showed the potential mass appeal of the brand.
Balancing a franchise that runs on both television and in movies is difficult, as has recently been seen with Marvel’s Disney+ streaming shows. However, Star Trek did a great job of it in the 1980s and 90s, when the franchise ran series like The Next Generation concurrently with the release of theatrical films including Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Building a complementary relationship between television and film is the best bet for Star Trek. However, with no confirmed shows for the series beyond the upcoming final seasons of both Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Strange New Worlds, the franchise’s upcoming movie is even more important.
Star Trek’s Movie Reboot Can’t Afford To Fail
Star Trek is moving away from the Kelvin films with what appears to be a new set of characters in a new future, and that’s very exciting for the series.
The writers have promised that the film will be a little further into the future than audiences have seen so far, which to date has been the 3195 setting of Starfleet Academy.
This is a promising premise, but the state of Star Trek today makes the upcoming film’s success even more important. Viewership for recent Trek is down, and the latest season of Strange New Worlds has received a lower Rotten Tomatoes score. In addition, Starfleet Academy was quickly canceled earlier this year after failing to connect with most audiences.
With all of Star Trek‘s shows ending, this upcoming movie reboot could be the franchise’s last chance for a while to reinvigorate audience interest. If this works out, it will likely mean more stories in the new setting of the film. However, if it fails to connect, there may be no more Star Trek for some time.
What Other Star Trek Movies Could Happen?
Granted, this is the worst-case scenario. The fact is that Star Trek remains an incredibly well-known intellectual property that Paramount will certainly gamble on in other ways, even if the upcoming film does not fully succeed.
Quentin Tarantino wanted to make a Star Trek movie for quite some time, and while that film did not happen, there will always be invested creatives with ideas for the series.
A fourth Kelvin timeline movie, while unlikely to be directed by Tarantino, is still a possibility. After all, there were ten years between the last episode of the original Star Trek and 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Following that, members of the cast returned many more times, with Leonard Nimoy’s Spock even appearing in the 2009 Star Trek.
A Captain Kirk-focused spinoff to Strange New Worlds has been discussed as a series, but with the recent pivot from streaming to theatrical, it is not impossible to think that another reboot of the original cast with Paul Wesley at the helm could be released as a movie.
There is also certainly a possibility for adapting other stories in the Kelvin timeline. A rebooted, recast iteration of The Next Generation in the same vein as the 2009 film could be another great way to continue the story while still providing tethers and links to what came before.
Hopefully, this upcoming movie, where the franchise boldly goes where it has never gone before, is a huge success. Star Trek deserves to keep its place as one of the most beloved science fiction universes ever made.
- TV Show(s)
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Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Short Treks, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
- Cast
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William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Deforest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Wil Wheaton, Avery Brooks, Nana Visitor, Rene Auberjonois, Alexander Siddig, Cirroc Lofton, Armin Shimerman, Colm Meaney, Terry Farrell, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Jeri Ryan, Robert Duncan McNeill, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Garrett Wang, Jolene Blalock, Connor Trinneer, Dominic Keating, Scott Bakula, Linda Park, John Billingsley, Anthony Montgomery, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho, Chris Hemsworth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sonequa Martin-Green, Mary Wiseman, Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Wilson Cruz, Oyin Oladejo, Emily Coutts, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn, Michelle Yeoh
- Created by
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Gene Roddenberry
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