Simon Pegg thinks Paramount mishandled Star Trek franchise

March 3rd 2020, 8:37am

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The Star Trek brand is currently thriving on the small screen thanks to the CBS All-Access series' Star Trek: Discovery & Picard. There are several other shows being actively developed for the streamer so it's future there seems very bright. On the film side, we haven't had a STAR TREK movie since the 2016 release of STAR TREK BEYOND, which hit theaters in time to commemorate the property's fiftieth anniversary. While critics praised the film, STAR TREK BEYOND underperformed at the box office & since then we've had rumors of an R-rated Quentin Tarantino take on the franchise while Noah Hawley has also signed to develop a film, most likely without the reboot cast. STAR TREK actor/writer Simon Pegg is now chiming in on why their films stalled and he seems to be pointing the finger at Paramount Pictures.

Speaking to GamesRadar+ and Total Film, Pegg pointed out Paramount's recent STAR TREK films haven't been profitable enough:

"The fact is, ‘Star Trek’ movies don’t make Marvel money. They make maybe $500 million at the most, and to make one now, on the scale they’ve set themselves, is $200 million. You have to make three times that to make a profit."

He went on to argue Paramount dropped the ball on using the fiftieth anniversary to promote BEYOND – which, in combination with other factors, makes a fourth movie in the reboot series unlikely to see the light of day with his fellow co-stars Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, John Cho & Zachary Quinto:

"They didn’t really take advantage of the 50th anniversary. The regimen at the time dropped the ball on the promo of the film. And we’ve lost momentum. I think losing Anton [Yelchin] was a huge blow to our little family, and our enthusiasm to do another one might have been affected by that. So I don’t know."

Pegg isn't wrong about how much the films cost to make. Both STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS and BEYOND were budgeted at $185 million, yet neither one cleared $500 million at the global box office and BEYOND couldn't even make it to $350 million by the end of its run. I like the rebooted series of films but STAR TREK lacks the mainstream appeal of something like STAR WARS to make serious worldwide money. They really should get the budgets down but Paramount hasn't done that with the last two installments.

Do YOU think we'll see the STAR TREK reboot cast in another film? Is Pegg right about the scale being set too high by Paramount due to escalating budgets?