Noah Hawley, the creator of the TV series Fargo and Legion, has been tapped to direct the next feature film installment of the cross-platform Star Trek franchise.
Deadline is reporting that Hawley is in final negotiations for the job. Hawley’s film will be set in the rebooted franchise timeline – known to fans as the “Kelvin timeline” – which was kicked off in 2009’s Star Trek from director J J Abrams.
The Hollywood Reporter is stating that franchise lead Chris Pine “is expected to return” to his role of Captain James Kirk, of the Federation starship Enterprise. Most likely the other recurring cast – Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, and John Cho – will return as well.
Initial a fourth film featuring this cast was in development soon after the third franchise installment, Star Trek Beyond, was released in July 2016. S J Clarkson was brought on to direct the film with J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay writing a screenplay that would see Jim Kirk being reunited with his dead father George (played by Chris Hemsworth in the 2009 Star Trek) through some time travel shenanigans. The entire project fell apart after Pine refused to take a paycut following Star Trek Beyond‘s under-performance at the box office.
Hawley’s film will most likely be starting fresh with a new story.
This project is of course separate from the Star Trek film Quentin Tarantino is currently developing with The Revenant screenwriter Mark L Smith.
