Simon Pegg believes the Star Trek franchise might be better off on television instead of on the big screen. While Stark Trek got its start on television in 1966, it later made the jump to movies in 1979 with Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Several films followed before the franchise took a break after 2002. Director J.J. Abrams later rebooted it with the “Kelvin Timeline” series of films, which began in 2009. Pegg starred in the Kelvin films as engineer Montgomery Scott, and even co-wrote the most recent installment, 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. When Star Trek Beyond underperformed, the future of the Star Trek films went into limbo, and to this day, the franchise’s next move remains unclear.
At this point, it’s almost difficult to keep track of the developments that have come and gone. Not long after Beyond, there were plans for Star Trek 4 that would see the return of the reboot stars alongside Chris Hemsworth (as James Kirk’s father), but that petered out after negotiations with the stars fell through. Quentin Tarantino toyed with an R-rated Star Trek for a time, but the progress on that remains questionable. Finally, Noah Hawley was hired to write and direct Star Trek 4 last year, but it might not be a direct continuation of what came before.
All of this uncertainty continues to weigh on Pegg, who has offered various updates about the state of the franchise over the years. While speaking to Collider about his new film Inheritance, Pegg reiterated that he doesn’t know what’s happening on the Star Trek front, despite still having an interest in it. Because so much is unclear, Pegg went on to wonder if television is actually the better medium for the franchise, saying this:
Maybe TV is a better place for [Star Trek] now. Television has evolved so much. It’s become something which is very much a contemporary, a peer of cinema. It’s simply viewed in a different way. It isn’t a reduced scope anymore. You can still do masses of interesting things, and it can still look modern and not inexpensive. Maybe television is a better format for Star Trek. That’s where it started, you know.
It does say a lot that, while the Star Trek films struggle to find their way forward, the television shows are flourishing on CBS All Access. The streaming service has two shows available so far, Discovery and Picard, with the latter pulling great numbers thanks to the return of Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard. There are several other Star Trek shows still in development as well, with the latest, Strange New Worlds, just getting announced last week. CBS has shown no signs of slowing down, while Paramount has shown no signs of moving forward.
Therefore, Pegg might have a point about Star Trek being better suited for television. In general, TV offers the chance to go deeper into characters and tell longer-running stories. It could be a better format for this ever-growing world. Considering the sheer number of Star Trek television shows that exist, it stands to reason that the franchise might just belong there instead of on the big screen. The real question is, does this mean there will be no more Star Trek movies? Only time will tell if it gets another shot at a cinematic adventure.
