Forget The Movie Critic, Tarantino’s Last Flick Was Supposed to Be a Star Trek Film

In 2022, Paramount announced that filming on the new Star Trek movie would begin at the end of that year, with all of the main actors expected to return to work. The last film in the series was released in 2016, and due to its poor box office performance, the franchise went on hiatus.

All the while, Paramount was trying to figure out what to do next. Among other things, the studio wanted to give Quentin Tarantino a chance to make his own R-rated Star Trek film. It never went into production, but details about the movie are still emerging.

Tarantino Expressed His Desire to Make a Star Trek Movie in 2015

In late 2015, Quentin Tarantino was asked if he would make a Star Wars movie. The director said that Star Trek was closer to his heart. In his opinion, many episodes of the classic TV series can easily be expanded to fit the length of the movie.

He cited the episode Yesterday's Enterprise from Star Trek: The Next Generation as an example. In it, the Enterprise crew encounters a time anomaly and attempts to repair the timeline. Tarantino mentioned that he would be interested in working on a movie closely related to the classic series.

The third film in the rebooted Star Trek series, Star Trek Beyond, received good reviews, but failed at the box office – with a budget of $185 million, the film earned only $343 million worldwide.

Paramount extended contracts with key actors for the fourth film even before Star Trek Beyond filming began. The film was announced in July 2016, and even Chris Hemsworth, who played the deceased father of the main character in the first film, was set to return. But after the box office failure, the studio began to think about the future of the franchise and considered several options.

And one of the options that had a good chance of being realized was Quentin Tarantino's Star Trek, which was in production until 2020.

Tarantino's Movie Was Supposed to Be Written by The Revenant Screenwriter

Quentin Tarantino pitched his idea to Paramount and producer J.J. Abrams in late 2017. It was then revealed that Mark L. Smith, who wrote The Revenant, was hired to write the script. The media also reported that Paramount had given Tarantino the green light to make a Star Trek movie with an R rating.

Some actors wanted to work on Tarantino's Star Trek after the first news about it. Patrick Stewart, who played Captain Picard in The Next Generation, said he would be happy to return to the role if Tarantino needed him. William Shatner, who played Kirk in the original series, said the same.

Tarantino's Star Trek Was Going to Be a Pulp Fiction in Space

The public assumed that Tarantino's film would take place outside the universe of the films with Chris Pine. But in June 2018, Zachary Quinto, who played Spock, said that the current characters will appear in Tarantino's film. His words were confirmed by Simon Pegg, who played the engineer Scott.

In 2019, the director mentioned that the script for his Star Trek is ready, and he will start working on the film after the release of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Then Tarantino confirmed that the movie will be rated R, and Mark L. Smith's script still needs some work.

In July, Tarantino described his movie as Pulp Fiction in space. However, he later noted that he did not yet know if he would make the movie.

Tarantino Ditched the Idea in 2019

At the end of 2019, Tarantino let it be known that he was moving away from his Star Trek flick, but nothing was decided yet. A month later, the director finally confirmed his decision not to make the movie.

And you already know why we did not get such a unique cinematic experience as a Star Trek movie from Tarantino – the director drove himself into the framework of ten full-length films, and still adheres to this principle.