STAR TREK 4 SHOULD BE ABOUT WHAT MADE WRATH OF KHAN GREAT

Star Trek 4 must embrace the underlying theme that made Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan great. Continually mired in development hell, the fourth Star Trek movie produced by J.J. Abrams has made no forward progress ever since director Matt Shakman left the project to helm Marvel Studios' Fantastic Four. But if Star Trek 4 does ever get off the ground, the many years since the last movie, Star Trek Beyond, bowed in 2016, could work to the cast and film's advantage.

J.J. Abrams' Star Trek was a successful reboot that reintroduced younger versions of Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Dr. Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban), and the crew of the USS Enterprise, albeit in the alternate Kelvin timeline. Star Trek 2009 was a visual upgrade and a cinematic shot in the arm the dormant franchise needed, and the films were widely seen by mainstream audiences who weren't necessarily Trekkies. Abrams' Star Trek trilogy broke Kirk and his crew down to their essences, and the first two films, especially, utilized their youth and inexperience as key elements. However, Star Trek 4 would have a rather different Captain Kirk and crew return to the bridge of the Starship Enterprise.

Star Trek 4 Should Be About J.J. Abrams’ Cast Getting Older

Star Trek 4 must embrace the fact that Captain Kirk, Spock, and their friends have gotten older. In that way, the fourth film can touch upon Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan's celebrated themes of old age and friendship. By the time Star Trek 4 does potentially hit theaters, it could be about a decade since Star Trek Beyond, when Captain Kirk celebrated his 30th birthday. This means Kirk has 10 more years of experience as Captain of the Enterprise, and will have possibly completed a second five-year mission aboard the USS Enterprise-A that launched at the end of Star Trek Beyond.

The Wrath of Khan was a pivotal Star Trek film in that it allowed the cast to move forward and truly acknowledge that time had passed since Captain Kirk (William Shatner) first commanded the Starship Enterprise. In Star Trek II, Kirk turned 50, needed glasses, and was beginning to feel obsolete. Kirk's conflict with the resurgent Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) gave him back a sense of youth and vitality in spite of the death of Spock (Leonard Nimoy). Star Trek 4 should emulate this sense of time passing for Chris Pine's Kirk and his crew and honor the idea that they've served aboard the Enterprise together for their entire adult lives. In turn, Kirk and his crew in middle age would enter a new and fascinating phase of their lives as the crew of the Starship Enterprise.

Star Trek 4’s Older Cast Becomes More Interesting Like Wrath Of Khan

Much of the appeal of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies lies in their breakneck pace that gains its power from the impetuousness of Captain Kirk and his crew's youth. However, audiences have already seen and enjoyed the Enterprise crew in their 20s, and Star Trek 4 must aim higher and for more. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Sulu (John Cho), and, hopefully, Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), would now rank among Starfleet's most experienced crews in Star Trek 4, and this would actually make them more interesting. In Star Trek Beyond, some of Captain Kirk's impulsiveness was blunted, but Star Trek 4 could replace hot-tempered youth entirely with wisdom and experience, which would be fascinating new colors for Chris Pine's Captain Kirk to play.

In Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Chris Pine plays Edgin, a widower and father, and there are elements of Pine's wonderful performance he could infuse into an older Captain Kirk in Star Trek 4. It's even possible that J.J. Abrams' Star Trek crew could have had families that their Prime Universe counterparts did not have, which would be a compelling new twist. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan established the original Kirk and crew were still capable of saving the galaxy as they got older, and Star Trek 4 would do well to establish a similar paradigm for the Kelvin Timeline crew, who can be just as heroic and fun to watch in their middle age.

2023-06-01T16:10:39Z dg43tfdfdgfd