STAR TREK Reboot Is Leaving the Past Behind With No Legacy Characters and a Darker Story

The next Star Trek movie isn’t bringing Kirk, Spock, Picard, or any other familiar faces along for the ride. The filmmakers are starting fresh, heading further into the future, leaving the Kelvin timeline behind, and apparently taking Star Trek into some darker territory.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves filmmakers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein are developing the next Star Trek movie for Paramount, which is moving on from the Chris Pine-led film series and attempting another big-screen reinvention of the franchise.

Daley and Goldstein previously revealed that their story takes place further into the future, but now they’ve made it clear just how clean of a break they’re planning.

Speaking with Empire Magazine, Daley said: "No legacy characters, nobody that you’ve met before. A different time, not a different timeline per se, but it’s a little further in the future."

Goldstein described it as "sort of a different timeline," which led Daley to clarify, "Well, not the Kelvin timeline. It’s not the J.J. [Abrams] timeline."

So, whatever the filmmakers have cooking, this won’t be another adventure with Chris Pine’s Kirk and his Enterprise crew. It also sounds like the movie won’t depend on bringing back established characters for cameos.

That could be exactly the kind of clean slate the Star Trek movie franchise needs. The theatrical side of Trek has spent years struggling to figure out its next move, and introducing an entirely new cast in a different era gives Daley and Goldstein a lot more room to play.

It also gives Paramount an opportunity to make a Star Trek movie designed to work for audiences beyond longtime fans. Goldstein is a genuine fan of the franchise, but the filmmakers have previously explained that they want the movie to connect with people who might not normally consider themselves Star Trek fans.

Anyone expecting the directors of Game Night to turn this into a space comedy can put that idea aside. Daley says this could actually be the darkest movie he and Goldstein have written.

"I would say it’s probably our darkest film that we’ve ever written. It’s not a comedy. There is our sensibility in it, and we do find levity, but it’s in the characters who find humor in even the darkest moments, which is just true to real life."

He continued: "We both went on an aircraft carrier when we were researching Mayday, and it can be a very fraught landscape working on those ships, and people have to find levity. They have to find joy in even the most serious moments, and that’s the approach we have in this film."

Goldstein added, "You want it to be a fun watch. Doesn’t mean you’re laughing your head off. It just means you’re in it, and you’re enjoying it."

A darker Star Trek movie doesn’t necessarily mean a joyless one. The filmmakers still want humor to come naturally from the characters, rather than building the entire movie around jokes.

It’s also an interesting direction for filmmakers whose previous movies have relied so heavily on comedy. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves worked because Daley and Goldstein understood how to mix character, adventure, danger, and humor without treating the material like a parody.

Applying that instinct to Star Trek while pushing the drama much further will make for something very different from their previous work.

The reboot arrives during another major period of change for Paramount. The studio is in the process of combining with Warner Bros. Discovery under David Ellison’s leadership, adding another huge shift to a company already figuring out the future of some of Hollywood’s biggest franchises.

The franchise itself also comes with expectations that go far beyond spaceships and phaser fights. Since Star Trek: The Original Series, Trek has been closely associated with an optimistic view of humanity’s future, along with stories about cooperation, diversity, inclusion, and people finding ways to overcome cultural and political divisions.

Daley and Goldstein have previously indicated that they aren’t interested in abandoning that foundation. Goldstein has described Gene Roddenberry’s optimistic vision as important to their approach, even as their story explores darker characters and problems within Starfleet.

There’s still plenty we don’t know, including who will star, exactly when the story takes place, and when cameras might start rolling. The untitled Star Trek reboot also doesn’t currently have a confirmed release date.

After years of false starts for Star Trek on the big screen, though, Daley and Goldstein at least sound like they have a clear idea of what they want their movie to be.

A completely new crew exploring an unfamiliar corner of the Star Trek universe? I’m excited to see where they take it!