Five years is a century in today’s franchise movie-verse, but that’s how long it’s been since Star Trek Beyond, the third in the big screen revival that began all the way back in 2009. Since then, the team led by Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk has effectively been on standby, weathering a number of potential fourquels. But now it finally has a director, and it’s the guy who responsible for all nine episodes of WandaVision.
As per Deadline, Matt Shakman — whose TV career spans episodes of dramas, like Six Feet Under, House, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, and Succession, and comedies, like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, You’re the Worst, Ugly Betty, and Psych — is the one who will get all of the Pine-era cast back together. (That is, minus Anton Yelchin, who died in 2016.) The news comes the same day Shakman received an Emmy nomination for WandaVision — one of seven other nominations, including Limited Series.
Star Trek Beyond, which was cowritten by its resident Scotty, Simon Pegg, mildly underperformed back in 2016, which was enough to put that wing of the franchise in jeopardy. But the other wings have thrived. There are now numerous Trek shows on streamers, even an animated one from a Rick and Morty alum. At one point Quentin Tarantino threatened to make his own, gleefully R-rated Trek movie as his swan song to filmmaking. But this news appears to put that one to bed.
(Via Deadline)