The future of the Star Trek franchise on the big screen is so up in the air now that it has breached the atmosphere and entered the deep recesses of space. One of several writers working on scripts for potential projects is Fargo's Noah Hawley, who has now offered some insight into his plans for Star Trek, revealing that he wants to introduce a whole new crew to the beloved sci-fi universe.

"We're not doing Kirk and we're not doing Picard. It's a start from scratch that then allows us to do what we did with Fargo, where for the first three hours you go, 'Oh, it really has nothing to do with the movie,' and then you find the money. So, you reward the audience with a thing that they love."

Moving away from the usual suspects is likely to be something of a controversial move on Hawley's part, but really it makes a lot of sense, particularly when you look at the success that the writer had with this approach when crafting Fargo. Noah Hawley also confirmed that his Star Trek movie had gotten as far as hiring designers before being placed "in stasis" for the time being, though he did not specify whether that was due to the script or the ongoing global situation.

While Star Trek has seen plenty of activity on the small screen with recent series like Picard, there are currently no confirmed plans for a fourth Star Trek movie, with the big screen adventures having been in limbo since 2016's Star Trek Beyond. There is still hope for the franchise's return however, with recent news stating that Paramount and motion picture group president Emma Watts are looking at three different approaches to the continuation of the franchise.

Alongside Noah Hawley's "start from scratch" take that links into the Star Trek of old rather than following it completely, the second idea comes from a script written by The Revenant's Mark L. Smith, which Quentin Tarantino was once attached to direct, and is rumored to be "based on an episode of the classic 'Star Trek' series that takes place largely earthbound in a 1930s gangster setting." The third approach would be a straight-up continuation of the movies that began in 2009 with J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, with the idea reportedly revolving around time travel and bringing back Kirk's father, played in the first movie by Thor star, Chris Hemsworth.

The cast of the modern Star Trek have expressed their uncertainty about returning, with Spock actor Zachary Quinto saying, "I stepped away from any expectation or any real certainty that it's ever going to happen again. I think that's the only real way to move through the world, right? If it happens, that'd be great, but I'm not going to sit around waiting for it to happen. I have a ton of other stuff in my life, in my career. I have lifelong friendships from those films and working relationships and a lot of respect and fond memories, so if that's what it ends up being and I can look back on my life and say that's what it was, then that's incredible, and if we get to do more, that's also incredible. But as far as the stories go, they've been around for decades and generations, and I think that that will continue, whether or not we continue on with them."

Frankly, whilst it would be great to see the return of the brilliant Star Trek Beyond cast, boldly going in a new direction could be the best way forward. This comes to us from Variety.