The upcoming Star Trek sequel has lost its director. Previously, it had been reported that Matt Shakman, who made a name for himself with the immense success of the Disney+ series WandaVision, was set to direct Star Trek 4 with production gearing up to start in the not-so-distant future. Now, amid new reports of Shakman returning to Marvel Studios to direct the planned Fantastic Four reboot for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's been announced (via THR) that Shakman has resigned from Star Trek 4.
A statement released by Paramount Pictures reads: “Matt Shakman is an incredibly talented filmmaker, and we regret the timing didn’t align for him to direct our upcoming Star Trek film. We are grateful for his many contributions, are excited about the creative vision of this next chapter and look forward to bringing it to audiences all around world.”
A sequel to the trilogy of reboot films, Star Trek 4 will bring back Chris Pine and other cast members from the first three movies. The screenplay that Shakman was going to use to helm Star Trek 4 comes from Josh Friedman and Cameron Squires following a previous draft by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet. At this point, there is said to be a search for a new director that is underway, as the goal is to get the film into theaters by December 2023.
Losing its director is certainly a setback for Star Trek 4, but it remains to be seen if this will result in a release date delay. In any case, it's been a long time coming with getting another Star Trek movie back on the big screen. There had been other reboots considered with Quentin Tarantino and Noah Hawley attached to potentially direct a Star Trek movie at different points, but none of those efforts would ultimately materialize. Perhaps Paramount noticed that there was still a lot of fan demand for Star Trek 4, resulting in this current incarnation of the film finally making some traction, barring this new hiccup with Shakman.
Star Trek 4 is currently scheduled to be released on Dec. 22, 2023.
Fantastic Four Will Reboot the Team for the MCU
Meanwhile, the Fantastic Four reboot has also been slowly moving forward. There's still a lot about the project that remains unknown, such as who might be playing the characters in the titular team. John Krasinski appeared as a version of Mister Fantastic/Reed Richards in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but as that was a variant, that does not necessarily mean he will also be playing the character in the Fantastic Four film. What we do know is that it won't be yet another origin story.
"A lot of people know this origin story," Marvel head Kevin Feige has said. "A lot of people know the basics. How do we take that and bring something that they've never seen before? We've set a very high bar for ourselves with bringing that to the screen."
The film is set to hit theaters on Nov. 8, 2024.