Chris Pine’s Star Trek 4 Pitch Is Exactly What The Franchise Needs

Much like “Star Wars,” the “Star Trek” franchise has a movie problem. It’s found success on TV, but the theatrical feature side of the franchise has been plagued by issues — including the fact that we haven’t got a new movie in nearly a decade. While there were rumors and reports of movies that could have been by the likes of Tarantino, nothing official happened — until now, with a prequel movie officially confirmed.

While we don’t yet know that much about the plot of the upcoming “Star Trek” movie, at least one former star has an idea of what not to do with the franchise. Speaking at an ACE Superhero Comic Con 2024 panel (via Popverse), Chris Pine addressed the state of the “Star Trek” franchise on the big screen. “I think we should make films that appeal to people who want to see the film,” Pine said. “I’m sick of trying to please people who don’t want to see what we do.” The actor went on to talk about how, in the current era of blockbuster filmmaking, all movies cost an exorbitant amount of money, and the impossible metrics for success that result from those high budgets.

For Pine, the solution is a no-brainer: “I think we just make a much smaller film that’s more story-driven, more character-based, there’s less s**t exploding, and maybe do it that way.”

This is not the first time Pine has offered this sort of opinion, as he’s previously talked about his belief that “Star Trek” should not try to compete with Marvel, which no franchise should try to do anyway because it’s a recipe for disaster.

The 2009 “Star Trek” movie rebooted the timeline of the franchise in order to bring in younger versions of the original TV characters and appeal to young audiences by exponentially increasing the action. The results provided more space battles and destruction that felt as if director J.J. Abrams was using a “Star Wars” approach to “Star Trek” at a time when no “star Wars” movies were being released. Of course, that all changed when “Star Wars” also got rebooted over at Disney and there was no need for more “Star Trek” movies that looked and felt like “Star Wars.”

After the third “Star Trek” reboot movie, “Star Trek Beyond,” wasn’t the huge hit the studio expected, the brakes were hit hard on every new Trek movie in development — including a proposed film from Noah Hawley. The problem, as Pine puts it, is that Paramount tried to turn the franchise into something it isn’t to appeal to a new audience by bringing the Trek franchise to them rather than bring them into the franchise. The fanbase of “Star Trek” skews older than that of, say, Marvel, which could be considered a bit of a problem, at least in the eyes of studios. But the solution should not be to make “Star Trek” bigger and bolder to appeal to blockbuster fans, but to maintain that core fanbase without breaking the bank.