New Tarantino Star Trek Movie Tease Makes It Not Happening A Bigger Crime

While the production of a new Star Trek movie is an exciting prospect for many fans, the fact that it’s not Quentin Tarantino’s story is a missed opportunity for the long-running franchise. Zoe Saldana has recently commented on Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek movie, and that it would have been a gamechanger. His Star Trek movie was being developed even before he made Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and for a while, it seemed as if it would be his final film (or at least a penultimate off-shoot). It was not to be though, and Star Trek 4 (in the Kelvin timeline) is now moving ahead without Tarantino’s involvement.

Star Trek 4 has had a tumultuous journey so far. Despite Star Trek Beyond being well received by critics and fans, its disappointing box office put the franchise’s big-screen future in doubt. As well as Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek movie, over the years S.J. Clarkson (Jessica Jones, Succession) and Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) also attempted their own version without success. Eventually, Matt Shakman (WandaVision) was hired to direct Star Trek 4, with the main cast returning and J.J. Abrams once again producing.

Zoe Saldana thought at one point that Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek movie was going to happen, but didn’t get the chance to read the script. Notwithstanding this, she felt that “it would have been like a bloodbath. A bloodbath in space!” Her comments and enthusiasm for the project serve to highlight how potentially ground-breaking it would have been. Star Trek has inherently altruistic values, with its sense of morality built into its foundations. Conversely, Quentin Tarantino writes characters that are usually highly immoral.  They’re often out for themselves and their own ends and have no qualms about leaving a bloody trail in their wake. This ethical juxtaposition between two competing moral outlooks is fascinating and would have given Star Trek (and sci-fi in general) a unique chapter. It would have stood out in a Hollywood system designed to churn out endless remakes and sequels that give audiences more of the same.

Star Trek has had its share of violence over the decades, but it’s never been R-rated. Quentin Tarantino though had said that his Star Trek movie was going to be akin to “Pulp Fiction in space,” with all his trademark bloody violence and explicit dialogue to go with it. While story details for the current version of Star Trek 4 are under wraps, it’s unlikely that Paramount will allow the movie to take any significant risks with the property in terms of its rating or content. At this stage, the studio will be aiming for a four-quadrant blockbuster that appeals to a global audience as it chases Disney’s success with Star Wars. That’s fine as far as it goes in terms of making a product to be sold, but art that stands the test of time is rarely created under those conditions. Even though Tarantino wasn’t necessarily planning to direct, he would have made sure his unique style was carried over to create a piece of art that stands alongside his other acclaimed works.

Though the large budget of a Star Trek movie means it needs to stay commercial, the franchise has found success recently with more eclectic and risky fare on television. Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek: Lower Decks have all won over general audiences with something new while satisfying faithful fans. This diversity of content shows that the IP is malleable enough to do something radically different without damaging the brand. Therefore while it may not ever be a movie, Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek could perhaps find a home one day as a television event series.

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