J.J. Abrams rebooted the "Star Trek" franchise in 2009, and since then, the three films in the new Kelvin timeline have been a smashing success. Altogether, the first "Trek" reboot, 2013's "Star Trek Into Darkness," and 2016's "Star Trek Beyond" have grossed more than a billion dollars at the global box office. They've also done fairly well critically, so with all that love, it seems pretty obvious that Hollywood would want to get "Star Trek 4" to theater screens at warp speed.
However, the road to "Star Trek 4" has not been a smooth one. Instead, it's one filled with starts and stops, various creatives coming and going, and a release date that keeps getting beamed all over the place. So what do we actually know about the fourth installment of the "Star Trek" reboot series, and what will it look like when it finally makes first contact? Well, read on for everything we know so far about "Star Trek 4."
What is the release date for Star Trek 4? Paramount Pictures "Star Trek 4" has been in the works for a long time ... a really long time. In June 2015, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Chris Pine (Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Spock) had signed up for "Star Trek 4." For context, Barack Obama was still president, the MCU's Phase 3 hadn't kicked off yet, and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" was still months away from hitting theaters and becoming the highest-grossing movie of the year.
All this time later and there's still no sign of "Star Trek 4." Pine and Chris Hemsworth (who was returning as Kirk's dad) allegedly left a potential fourth project over pay disputes in 2018 (via The Hollywood Reporter), and in 2019, it was announced that the film had been shelved (via Deadline). Eventually, the project started moving again and earned a release date of June 9, 2023, but that eventually got kicked back to December 22, 2023 ... before vanishing from the release slate completely.
In other words, we have no idea when "Star Trek 4" will be released. But we do have reason to believe it's still in the works. Speaking with Collider, former director Matt Shakman (who left the project to direct "Fantastic Four") said, "I think what they're still working on is a version of what I have been working on for the time that I was involved." With that, it seems that the Enterprise is still heading to theaters, although we have no clue when the ship will fly back onto the big screen.
What is the plot of Star Trek 4? Paramount Pictures At this point, no plot details for the upcoming fourth "Star Trek" movie have been revealed, but we'd assume it will take place after the events of 2016's "Star Trek Beyond," which was directed by Justin Lin ("The Fast and the Furious" franchise).
In "Star Trek Beyond," Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise see their beloved ship crashed on the planet Altamid, after an ambush by a pre-Federation human soldier, Idris Elba's Captain Balthazar Edison. When Kirk and the gang discovered Edison's plans to use an ancient bioweapon to destroy the Federation, they're forced to stop him, without the help of their ship. That film also saw the death of Leonard Nimoy's Ambassador Spock, as well as the end of the relationship between Spock and Uhuru.
One story we know "Star Trek 4" won't be exploring is a reunion between Captain Kirk and his father George involving time travel. Chris Hemsworth briefly played George Kirk in 2009's "Star Trek," but turned down a chance to reprise the role in a bigger story in 2018 (via Digital Spy). "Star Trek 4" also won't tie into any of the current TV series about Star Trek, like "Star Trek Picard" or "Star Trek Below Decks," as those series take place in a universe separate from the Kelvin timeline.