HOLLYWOOD - In the luminous constellation of Hollywood franchises, few have hovered as long or as persistently as Star Trek. For more than half a century, its name has stood for optimism, exploration, and wonder. Yet by the mid-2020s, the big-screen Trek appeared stuck in a gravitational well of development hell: sequels postponed, concepts recycled, and fans growing impatient for a new voyage. That stasis may finally be coming to an end — thanks to a bold announcement from Paramount Pictures (in partnership with Skydance Media) and a promising creative team.
Reported by Allan R. Ellenberger for The Hollywoodland Revue
Photo Credit: Paramount
Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley—creators of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and co-writers of Spider-Man: Homecoming—have been tapped to write, produce, and direct an all-new Star Trek film. Photo Credit: Variety/Image
Directors-writers-producers Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley — celebrated for their work on Spider‑Man: Homecoming (2017) and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) — have officially been tapped to write, produce and direct a completely new take on Star Trek. The duo is not just rebooting the familiar; they’re launching what the studio describes as an “original story” unconnected to any past film or television incarnation, including the so-called Kelvin Timeline that began with 2009’s Star Trek.
Cutting the Leash of Continuity
The decision is as strategic as it is symbolic. For years, Paramount circulated multiple Star Trek film projects — from Quentin Tarantino’s would-be 1930s Trek gangster flick to a “final chapter” script for the original cast, to a new origin story from Seth Grahame-Smith. None gained sufficient traction. Most recently, the franchise’s first theatrical‐style installment since 2016, Star Trek: Section 31 (2025), landed on streaming and met with lukewarm reception.
Choosing a fresh direction removes a great deal of baggage. Goldstein & Daley’s film won’t attempt to reconcile timelines, revive legacy characters, or tread familiar fan-service territory. It will instead “boldly go” into territory uncharted for Trek — and for Paramount’s film ambitions. The studio’s new leadership under David Ellison at Skydance appears ready to break from old patterns.
In short: the new film is not a sequel, not a re-boot, and not a remake—it is a new star system.
Why Goldstein & Daley?
Hiring the duo sends a clear signal. Their credits demonstrate a smart mix of blockbuster sensibility and comedic craft: Spider-Man: Homecoming helped resurrect the Spider-Man franchise, while Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves proved they could blend genre, humor and character into a big-budget world. With the Trek assignment they’ll be expected to do something similar: deliver scale and gravitas without losing heart or sense of fun.
Their status as writers, producers and directors signals a unified creative voice — one source of responsibility and vision. That kind of streamlined authorship is precisely what Trek movies have often lacked in recent years.
What We Know — And What We Don’t
What we know:
- The film will be developed under the Paramount/Skydance banner.
- Goldstein & Daley are fully attached as writers, producers, and directors.
- It will be a completely new story, disconnected from all prior films and TV series, including the Kelvin Timeline.
- The previously planned film intended to reunite the original cast is reportedly no longer moving forward.
What we don’t know:
- A title or release date (though industry chatter suggests a potential 2026 release).
- Any cast members, ship or setting details.
- Whether it will anchor itself in the Prime universe (the original Trek continuity) or create a wholly new timeline.
- How Trek’s signature themes — exploration, optimism, and moral philosophy will be handled in this new incarnation.
What This Means for Star Trek
For fans and the franchise alike, this reset offers both promise and risk.
The Promise:
- A chance to re-energize Star Trek’s big-screen presence after nearly a decade of dormancy.
- A stripped-back opportunity to attract new audiences, unburdened by decades of continuity, streaming spin-offs, or inter-series cross-pollination.
- Fresh creative energy from filmmakers who understand both genre and mainstream appeal.
The Risk:
- Trek has always depended on the public’s faith in its optimistic vision of humanity’s future. A comedic-action-oriented team may alienate long-time devotees if the tone shifts too far.
- The franchise’s big-screen brand has grown stale; once-hot theatre audiences now expect event-scale spectacles—Trek must deliver.
- By cutting ties with the Kelvin & legacy timelines, the film may struggle to satisfy die-hard fans who feel disoriented without familiar faces.
Looking Ahead: Star Trek in 2026 and Beyond
If the film lands in 2026 as speculated, the next 12-18 months will shape Trek’s cinematic trajectory. Paramount/Skydance must build momentum — reveal a cast, showcase a tone, and convince theatregoers that this isn’t just another streaming tie-in.
Meanwhile, the Trek universe on television remains active, with series like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds holding the fort in streaming culture. The new film’s success may well come down to its ability to interlock with (or deliberately diverge from) TV offerings while standing powerful on its own.
For now, the phasers are set — not to nostalgic recall, but to launch. Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley have the helm. The mission: to take Star Trek somewhere it has never gone before.
And for the first time in years, it feels like the franchise is ready.
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