The Legend director is to write and direct the next film. It must be something that fans of the original TV shows, and of JJ Abrams, can embrace
If hardcore Star Trek fans do not much like the current series of movies introduced by JJ Abrams a decade ago, we should wonder what they do want to see. Amid reports that Fargo and Legend’s Noah Hawley is to write and direct the next film, this is surely a critical stage for the saga if it is to survive in its current incarnation. Hawley simply must make a Star Trek movie that fans of the original series and its successors can embrace, and retain the dynamism, thrills and spills of the Abrams years.
If he cannot, Star Trek has a problem. These films are relatively big-budget affairs – all three movies in the trilogy so far have cost at least $150m in production bills alone – but they do not make the big bucks that would be expected of similar productions. No film since Abrams’s 2009 reboot has so far made more than $500m at the global
box office – which given that these movies have all been critically acclaimed should be all the more shocking. During the same period, dozens of Marvel and DC superhero flicks have beaten that figure, while every
Star Wars film (bar the middling Solo) has hit $1bn or more.