Steve Yockey, co-creator of the Max series “The Flight Attendant,” is joining Starfleet as the new screenwriter for “Star Trek 4.”
Story details remain under a powerful cloaking device, but Paramount Pictures still intends the project to be the final chapter for the cast that rebooted the franchise in movie theaters with 2009’s “Star Trek,” including Chris Pine (as Capt. James T. Kirk), Zachary Quinto (as Cmdr. Spock), Zoe Saldaña (as Lt. Nyota Uhura), Karl Urban (as Dr. Leonard McCoy), John Cho (as Lt. Hikaru Sulu) and Simon Pegg (as chief engineer Montgomery Scott). (Variety first reported the news in its cover story on the future of the “Star Trek” franchise.)
Bringing the cast back following 2016’s “Star Trek Beyond” has proven trickier for the studio than finding an altruistic Ferengi. At least three previous attempts fell apart for various reasons, most recently with director Matt Shakman (“WandaVision”) and screenwriters Lindsey Beer (“Sierra Burgess Is a Loser”) and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (“Captain Marvel”) that the studio had slated to open in late 2023. When Shakman left the film in 2022 to direct “The Fantastic Four” for Marvel Studios, however, Paramount pulled it from its slate and sent it back to spacedock.
Yockey’s involvement is the most promising sign of forward momentum the project has had since. The playwright started his TV writing career on the MTV series “Awkward” and “Scream,” before joining the writing staff of “Supernatural” for four seasons. His latest series, the Sandman universe adaptation “Dead Boy Detectives,” will premiere on Netflix in April.
Paramount is also developing a separate “Star Trek” project, with writer Seth Grahame-Smith (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”) and director by Toby Haynes (“Black Mirror: USS Callister”), that would feature a new cast in a story meant as a kind of origin story for the franchise. A project with screenwriter Kalinda Vazquez (“Fear the Walking Dead”) first announced in 2021 also remains in development.