Star Trek is one of the most popular sci-fi franchises out there, but lately it’s been on TV. Since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, we’ve been waiting in vain for a new movie. However, there was no lack of ideas. Quentin Tarantino was going to write a screenplay, and a time-travelling Chris Hemsworth would appear in another project. The Thor actor recently revealed why his return to the Star Trek universe fizzled out.
Why didn’t Star Trek 4 become a reality with Chris Hemsworth?
In case you missed it, before the Australian became internationally known in Thor, Hemsworth played the late father of James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) in Star Trek. In 2016, producer JJ Abrams announced that Hemsworth would return as George Kirk in Star Trek 4, via time travel. Just two years later, the project was in trouble, allegedly because of salary negotiations between Hemsworth and Pine.
Paramount
Chrs Hemsworth in Star Trek
On the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via TrekMovie), Chris Hemsworth recently explained that there were a number of reasons why he ultimately turned down Star Trek 4. As he told host Josh Horowitz:
It wasn’t what I thought it would be or what it could have been. I thought we’d go about it like, ‘okay, cool, let’s work on it and move on’. And then I think were all busy with other things. […] There were talks about doing a film with Chris Pine and me. The script was drafted and then it all fell apart.
It sounds like the plans for Star Trek 4 were rudimentary or unconvincing. In fact, the actor had deeper concerns about the story, especially regarding the logic of the dead George Kirk’s return:
It would have been strange to see the father again in the flashback and think: ‘Why is he so much older than when he died?’
As early as 2019, Chris Hemsworth explained in an interview:
Didn’t feel we had a reason to go back there yet. I didn’t want to be disappointed of what I would contribute. Chris Hemsworth leaves a return to Star Trek open
However, Chris Pine’s film father does not want to rule out a return. In the podcast, he opened up about meeting again on the bridge of the Enterprise:
If JJ Abrams called me tomorrow and I was like, ‘Chris Pine and I want to do it’, I’d probably be like, ‘Yeah, let’s go!’
Star Trek 4 continues to sizzle in development hell. A much-heralded theatrical release in 2023 (excluding Hemsworth) was wiped from the calendar in September. What remains is a paradise of Star Trek series, which has been sprouting out of the ground since Discovery 2017. In December, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will be launched on Paramount+ in Germany.
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