The next Star Trek film will not look like anything that has come before it.
Directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, best known for Game Night and Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con that the new Star Trek movie they are developing will be a completely fresh start, according to Collider. It will not continue the Kelvin Timeline launched by J.J. Abrams in 2009, and it will not connect to any of the franchise's current television series.
"We're very fortunate to already be in the process of this with the Star Trek movie that we're developing," the pair told Collider's Perri Nemiroff at the convention, where they were promoting their new Apple TV movie, Mayday. "I think, if we get to make it, it would be very surprising for people because it is a version of Star Trek that no one's ever seen before. We are subverting it in a way that I think would be very exciting and also set itself apart from the television versions of the IP, but also the J.J. movies. It's just a matter of if we get to actually get it done."
The Kelvin Timeline films, which began as a critically praised reboot, spent nearly a decade in development limbo over a potential fourth installment before that project was scrapped entirely. Goldstein and Daley's film was first announced late last year. Star Trek is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2026.
Goldstein was careful to describe what subverting the franchise actually means to them. "I'd say 'subvert with respect.' It's kind of like that old Reagan quote, 'Trust but verify.' That's how we approached D&D," he explained. "We want to do something that is different, that will surprise people, but also respects the DNA of what Star Trek is in this case."
Daley added that the film is built around character rather than franchise mechanics. "You don't have to be a Star Trek fan to like what we're doing because it's a very character-based film that we're putting together."
The film is currently in development and does not yet have a release date.
