Star Trek is in the midst of one of its most volatile transition periods, thanks to the changing tides at Paramount and the changing nature of the movie and streaming industry as a whole. The current era of Star Trek shows is coming to an end, but a new era of Star Trek movies is on the horizon. Paramount has a new Star Trek movie in development, with the team behind Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves at the helm; however, = as of CinemaCon 2026, there are no firm details on the story. That’s left a glimmer of hope in the eyes of some fans, who have been hoping for years now that one particular Star Trek film would make it to the big screen.
The word about Quentin Tarantino’s R-rated Star Trek movie has become a tall tale legend within Hollywood and the Star Trek fandom. It’s been one of the projects that became a fan fixation, and has been the constant focus of fandom discussions and online campaigns. With a whole new era taking shape at Paramount, it’s hard to know how much of a possibility Tarantino’s Star Trek project is anymore. But one person who is in a position to know about all things Trek is giving a decisive answer that fans will want to hear.
William Shatner Closes the Door on Tarantino’s Star Trek Movie
William Shatner was present at Liverpool Comic-Con, where he was interviewed about the legacy of Star Trek and more. The subject of Shatner’s friendship with Tarantino was brought up (Tarantino has been a longtime avid fan of Shatner’s Captain Kirk), and that led to the question lots of Star Trek fans are still asking: Could Tarantino’s Star Trek still happen?
Well, we can put this fandom dream to bed, because Shatner’s definitive answer was “No.” According to Shatner, hat any opportunity for Tarantino’s Star Trek has long since passed: “It’s past its time. He has passed his time, and I have…”
Star Trek will never get to know exactly what Quentin Tarantino planned to do with Star Trek, after so many teases of something epic. In 2023, Mark L. Smith, who wrote the screenplay for Tarantino’s Star Trek movie, said in no uncertain terms that it would’ve been “the greatest Star Trek film, not for my writing, but just for what Tarantino was gonna do with it. It was just a balls-out kind of thing… It was a hard R. It was going to be some Pulp Fiction violence,” Smith explained to Collider. “Not a lot of the language… but it was just really the edginess and the kind of that Tarantino flair, man, that he was bringing to it. It would have been cool.
According to Smith, Tarantino would’ve done for Star Trek what Taika Waititi and James Gunn did for the Marvel Cinematic Universe: change up the formula fans were used to.
“I liked it because I think it’s different, the way that Ragnarok changed things. It was like suddenly it had a different feel for the Marvel stuff. It was like, ‘That’s fun. That’s different, and I guess Guardians [of the Galaxy] to some level, but it was just like a different vibe, and that’s what I thought that it could bring to Star Trek was just a different feel.”
So What’s Next For Star Trek?
As stated, this year, Paramount announced that a new Star Trek movie is coming, without revealing any of the story details. We can rule out Tarantino’s film, but there are still a lot of questions about whether the next film we recast the classic characters for a reboot, or return to J.J. Abrams’ “Kelvin Timline” with Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk and crew, or launch a new wave of movies using new characters or a different set of established characters.
When initial reports about the new Star Trek movie went live, it was said that directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley were leaning toward abandoning Abrams’ Kelvin Timeline, and might not “include any familiar characters at all.” The pair reportedly have “a completely new take” on Star Trek, that won’t be connected to previous shows or films. However, we have yet to hear that confirmed as the official creative approach to the movie, or what the “new take” on the franchise would be.
What do you want to see next for the Star Trek franchise? Let us know in our Forum Discussion!