'Star Trek' announces return to the big screen

Paramount is taking a step toward bringing Star Trek back to the big screen after years of intermittent releases. A new film directed by Toby Haynes, who helmed episodes of the Star Wars series Andor, is set to be written by Seth Grahame-Smith.

The story is supposed to take place decades before the events of J.J. Abrams' 2009 film Star Trek. The film, which the studio describes as an extension of the Star Trek universe, will be produced by Abrams' Bad Robot.

Star Trek has mainly focused on TV shows and streaming lately, with Strange New Worlds, Discovery, Lower Decks, and Picard on Paramount+. The last Star Trek movie, Star Trek Beyond, was released in 2016. The cast of Star Trek Beyond is currently working on a fourth and final movie.

After Beyond did not do well at the box office, Paramount has been working for years to find a fresh big-screen approach for Star Trek.

Chris Hemsworth was set to join Pine's crew for Star Trek 4 in 2016. However, subsequent attempts by other filmmakers failed to make it to the big screen.

Recently, producer Abrams announced a new Star Trek movie directed by Pine, to be released by the end of the year. Initially, Matt Shakman was set to direct, but he left in August 2022 to work on Fantastic Four for Marvel Studios. 

Smith, who wrote the screenplays for movies like The Lego Batman Movie and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, is represented by WME and lawyers PJ Shapiro and Wendy Kirk.

The news was initially reported by Deadline.