As Cosmic Book News exclusively reported on July 2, our Hollywood insiders said David Ellison’s Paramount is taking Star Trek back to what made The Wrath of Khan through The Next Generation work.
The directors of the new movie just went further than they ever have.
Speaking with Empire, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein say their Star Trek is probably the darkest film they have ever written, it is not a comedy, and it is not the Kelvin timeline.
‘Probably Our Darkest Film That We’ve Ever Written’
Empire asked the pair where the movie lands tonally.
“I would say it’s probably our darkest film that we’ve ever written,” Daley tells Empire. “It’s not a comedy.”
That is a big statement from the team behind Horrible Bosses, Vacation, Game Night, and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
“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,” Daley continued.
He pointed to the aircraft carrier the pair visited while researching Mayday, their Ryan Reynolds action movie. Working those ships is a fraught job, Daley said, and the people doing it have to find joy in even the most serious moments. That is the approach for this film.
“You want it to be a fun watch,” Goldstein added. “Doesn’t mean you’re laughing your head off. It just means you’re in it, and you’re enjoying it.”
If “it’s not a comedy” sounds familiar, Danny McBride used the same words about his G.I. Joe movie.
Ellison’s Paramount keeps hiring comedy filmmakers and getting serious movies out of them.
It is also the tone our insiders pointed to from the start. The Wrath of Khan is the Star Trek movie where Spock dies. Dark and serious is the lane.
‘Not The Kelvin Timeline’
Empire then brought up that this is a brand-new Star Trek movie.
“Entirely,” 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.”
“Sort of a different timeline,” Goldstein said.
“Well, not the Kelvin timeline,” Daley said. “It’s not the J.J. [Abrams] timeline.”
The Kelvin timeline is the alternate reality created in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek, home to the three Chris Pine movies. Daley just ruled it out on the record.
So the new movie lives in the main Star Trek universe, with characters nobody has met, set further ahead than anything before it.
That is the same ground the directors staked out in Hall H at Comic-Con in July and in their Inverse interview in September, where they described a near-real-time thriller about the institution of Starfleet, with Training Day and Crimson Tide as the comps.
As for the plot, Goldstein gave Empire the full spoiler.
“It’s tribbles,” he joked. “It’s all tribbles. The whole movie.”
The Receipts Go Back To June
On June 29, Cosmic Book News exclusively reported David Ellison and Mike De Luca were teaming up to save Star Trek.
On July 2, our insiders gave the blueprint: back to the Wrath of Khan-to-Next Generation era. Serious science fiction, built for the big screen.
Every update since has matched. All-new characters at Comic-Con in July. A real-time Starfleet thriller to Inverse in September. Now the Kelvin timeline ruled out, to Empire.
The stakes have not moved either. A well-placed industry source warns everything rides on this movie, with no backup plan behind it.
The TV side is being rebuilt at the same time, with Paramount+ canvassing writers for the franchise’s next era as Alex Kurtzman’s deal runs out.
Star Trek turned 60 on September 8 with The Wrath of Khan back on theater screens in its Director’s Cut. In 1982, that movie saved the franchise.
Our insiders said Ellison’s Star Trek would get serious again. The men making it just called it the darkest film they have ever written.
