Draft:Untitled Star Trek prequel film

An untitled Star Trek film is an upcoming American science fiction film directed by Toby Haynes and written by Seth Grahame-Smith. Based on the television series Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry, it is intended to be the 14th film in the Star Trek film franchise.

Paramount was revealed to be expanding its Star Trek film slate in January 2024, starting with what was described as an origin story for the franchise. Haynes and Grahame-Smith were attached to the project by then.

The film is set to be released theatrically in the United States in 2025 by Paramount Pictures.

Development
Paramount Pictures was revealed in January 2024 to be expanding its Star Trek film slate to have multiple films in development, even as they continued work on the next entry in the franchise's reboot films following Star Trek Beyond (2016). This was inspired by the success of multiple concurrent Star Trek television series on the streaming service Paramount+ in recent years. While the in-development Star Trek 4 was described as the "final chapter" in the main film series, the new film that had been added to the slate was said to be an origin story. Deadline Hollywood reported that it would be set decades before the first reboot film, Star Trek (2009), which is set in the early 23rd century. Toby Haynes had been hired to direct the film and Seth Grahame-Smith was writing the script, with J. J. Abrams returning to produce through his company Bad Robot. By the end of March, the project was further along in development than Star Trek 4 and was expected to begin pre-production by the end of the year. Paramount wanted lower budgets for both films due to the lower box office returns of the previous reboot films compared to other big franchises like Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At that time, Variety reported that the film would be an origin story for the entire franchise, not just the reboot films, indicating that it could be set in the original "Prime Timeline" rather than the alternate "Kelvin Timeline" of the reboot films. Paramount officially announced the film at CinemaCon in April 2024, and said filming would begin later that year for a planned 2025 release.

Simon Kinberg was in talks to join Abrams as a producer on the film by late May 2024, with potential to become the "franchise shepherd" for Paramount's Star Trek films similar to the role Alex Kurtzman had as lead producer of the Star Trek television series on Paramount+. Kinberg previously held a similar role for 20th Century Fox's X-Men film series. The Hollywood Reporter indicated that the origin story film could be another reboot of the franchise, would be set close to modern times, and would include the creation of Starfleet and humanity's first contact with alien life. The latter two events were previously depicted as part of the Prime Timeline in the television series Star Trek: Enterprise (2001–2005) and the film Star Trek: First Contact (1996), respectively. The film was expected to be primarily set on Earth, and was seen by Paramount as an entry point for new fans of the franchise that did not require knowledge of the Star Trek canon or the many new Star Trek series on Paramount+. Variety again reported that the film would be set in the Prime Timeline and said it would take place in the aftermath of humanity's first contact with alien life. Puck reported that Paramount was interested in a 2026 release for the film, to align with the Star Trek franchise's 60th anniversary, rather than the previously announced 2025 release plans.

Filming
Principal photography is scheduled to begin in December 2024, in London and Los Angeles.

Release
The film is set to be released theatrically in the United States in 2025 by Paramount Pictures.