Into Darkness, the sequel, did better, making $467m on a budget of $190m. Beyond, the final film in the series made $343m on a budget of $185m. All three movies underperformed, which is why Paramount abandoned the film franchise.

They chose to rebrand Star Trek on television and for the most part they have succeeded. Star Trek Discovery has its detractors but it has done well enough to earn a fourth season, expected at some point in 2021.

Star Trek Picard released a teaser a few weeks ago hinting at the return of a popular character in its second season, which debuts in 2022. Star Trek Lower Decks, the adult animated show, has already received a third-season order.

Star Trek Prodigy, another animated show featuring Kate Mulgrew’s Kathryn Janeway, will premiere on Paramount+ in 2021.

The TV shows have succeeded where the movies failed, which is why Paramount has decided to take another shot at a Star Trek film.

Their goal is to turn the excitement the TV shows attract into Box Office success. We don’t know anything about Star Trek 4. Before the Abrams series fell apart, we heard rumors of a sequel to ‘Beyond’ that would use time travel shenanigans to reunite Chris Pine’s James Kirk with Chris Hemsworth’s George Kirk.

But the idea was scrapped, and so were plans for a Quintin Tarantino Star Trek movie. At this point, we don’t even know whether the Abrams cast will return. A more pressing question is the timeline.

Most of Star Trek takes place in the Prime Universe. That includes The Original Series, TNG, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Picard, the animated shows, and every Star Trek movie that came out before 2009.

In Star Trek 2009, Narada, a Romulan ship from the 24th Century, travelled back in time and destroyed the USS Kelvin, killing Kirk’s father in the process. In doing so, it created an entirely new timeline (the so-called Kelvin timeline).

We initially assumed that Paramount would set all its projects in the Kelvin timeline to avoid contradictions with events that happened in prime universe shows and movies. But Paramount chose to revisit the Prime Universe with Discovery and Picard, a decision that initially pleased and then infuriated longtime fans.

The Kelvin timeline has gone largely ignored, and it would make sense to set future films in the universe because it gives the writers a lot of freedom. They don’t have to concern themselves with paying homage to the Star Trek of old or telling stories that are consistent with ideas and concepts that Gene Rodenberry and his colleagues introduced decades earlier.

This has me excited. The TV shows had gone to great lengths to dilute my interest in the film franchise. Discovery season 3 was vastly inferior to season 2.

Star Trek Lower Decks was horrific, both as a Star Trek installment and as an adult animated show. Two terrible seasons of Star Trek Voyager destroyed all the momentum I had picked up from TNG and Deep Space Nine. This is as good a time as any to take Star Trek back to the big screen.  

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