Director Matt Shakman On “Star Trek 4”
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In the long road of development on a fourth “Star Trek” film set within the ‘Kelvin Timeline’ that began with the J.J. Abrams-directed 2009 movie, several directors have come and gone.
The most recent was Matt Shakman who exited the project a year ago to instead jump over to Marvel Studios’ “Fantastic Four” film which has had its own developmental difficulties.
Shakman is also involved in Apple TV+ series “Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters” which he directs the first two episodes of. Speaking with The Playlist’s The Discourse Podcast about that series, he was asked about ditching “Star Trek” for Marvel.
He says the latter was a great opportunity he couldn’t let slop by:
“I love ‘Star Trek’. I’m a huge ‘Star Trek’ fan – loved ‘Next Generation’ when I was a kid, and then obviously reruns of the original series. Loved the movies, and the chance to play in that world was hugely exciting. And I’m a big fan of what J.J. [Abrams] has created and loved that cast. So that was hugely exciting.
It was a bummer that it didn’t end up happening with me there. I worked on it, developed the script, designed ships, had lots of great storyboards with the Enterprise, all sorts of stuff that a Star Trek fan just loves to get to do. But movies have different momentums, and we weren’t able to move ahead into production.
I was offered this opportunity to go over to Marvel to work on Fantastic Four, and it was impossible to turn down something that was another world that I loved, and that was equally exciting, and that was already moving in the right direction. So, I hope ‘Star Trek 4’ comes to pass. They’re working really hard on it. That cast is amazing.”
He revealed he didn’t read any other director’s version of the film, be it Quentin Tarantino or Noah Hawley, but does say Hawley’s was its own “separate thing” and wasn’t in the Kelvin timeline.