Noah Hawley has been tasked with writing and directing the fourth installment of the current Star Trek franchise. The writer, producer, and author is best known for creating the TV series Fargo, and FX’s Legion.
J.J. Abrams, who directed the first 2 movies in the franchise, Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek into Darkness (2013), will be returning as a producer, the same role he took for the third film, Star Trek Beyond (2016), which was directed by Justin Lin.
Most of the original cast from the previous movies will be making an appearance, with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, and Zoe Saldana all expected to return to the USS Enterprise. Attempts to kick start the movie into production last year with S. J. Clarkson failed after deals fell through.
This is separate to a Star Trek movie which is allegedly in the works at Paramount involving Quentin Tarantino.
Hawley’s directorial debut in movies came with Lucy in the Sky, which was released earlier this year and premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. It tells the story of an astronaut, played by Natalie Portman, struggling to cope with life on her return to earth. On Metacritic, the movie scored 36 out of 100, and received a description of “generally unfavorable reviews“.
In addition to Fargo and Legion, Hawley has created ABC’s My Generation, a mockumentary about a reality TV show, and The Unusuals, a dark comedy set in an NYPD precinct. Hawley has a 20-year long career and is also a published author, with five novels under his belt.
Some on Twitter expressed the hope that Hawley would take the franchise in a different direction, perhaps spicing things up.
The current STAR TREK movie franchise is TIRED. It'd be a mistake to move fwd with a 4th film with this cast. Noah Hawley should start fresh with his own cast & tone. Or pull a JOKER and make the next TREK film for half as much as past installments. Focus on story over spectacle.
— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) November 19, 2019
Others were upset that the deal with S. J. Clarkson had fallen through.
They took the STAR TREK sequel away from the franchise’s first female director and gave it to the man who just made one of the biggest bombs of 2019? https://t.co/rcmUMsssZq
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) November 20, 2019
People are batting hard for Noah Hawley saying “gender is not a factor” when it absolutely is. They couldn’t pay Chris Pine what he wanted when a woman was at the helm but when a white man comes onboard suddenly they CAN pay Chris Pine & green light the movie w/ a bigger budget.
— Aaron (@aaronfraggle) November 20, 2019
No release date has yet been announced for the upcoming Star Trek movie.