Simon Pegg (Scotty) refuses to give up on Star Trek 4

Simon Pegg has been part of the new Star Trek movies since 2009’s Star Trek, where he played a young Montgomery Scott, aka Scotty. He was in both movies made after that, Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) and Star Trek Beyond (2016). But since then, there’s been silence on the final frontier.

These movies follow the “Kelvin Timeline,” which is an alternate universe that was created when the Romulan Nero traveled to 2233 and destroyed the Federation starship the U.S.S. Kelvin. The captain of that starship was George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth), father of James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), who eventually became the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

So is there gonna be a fourth movie or what? “We’re all still in contact,” Pegg told Movieweb, “we were emailing with each other the other day, just checking in, ‘how are we,’ and stuff. But it’s not like any of us have been banging on the door at Paramount saying, ‘Hey, when are we doing this?’ If they say, ‘We’d like to do another movie,’ I’m sure we’ll all jump at the chance.”

"I miss those guys, and I love making those films. But I just don’t know. Noah Hawley’s project has been mentioned, and maybe that will happen. I don’t know anything about that. So yeah, I’m as in the dark as everyone else, I’m in the same boat as you guys."

Pegg mentions Legion and Fargo creator Noah Hawley, who Paramount charged with developing Star Trek 4, but we’ve heard precious little about that project since news of it broke half a year ago, and obviously it’s not active at the moment, with the coronavirus shutting down Hollywood and Pegg and all of his costars quarantined at home.

It seems like the tragic death in 2016 of Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov, had a deep and lasting impact on his Star Trek castmates, so much so that doing a film without him seemed impossible. “One thing I did mention when I spoke about it recently is that for us, losing Anton Yelchin the way we did was a real blow,” said Pegg. “And I think it slightly took the wind out of our sails in terms of our enthusiasm to do another one, just because we’re now missing one of our family. He would be conspicuous by his absence.”

Well, if Hawley’s Star Trek movie never gets made, at least we have all the Star Trek shows on CBS All Access to keep us busy. Discovery is heading into its third season, while a new show —  Star Trek: Strange New Worlds — was just announced. An animated comedy called Lower Decks is coming soon, and Star Trek: Picard just finished its first season.

And there’s a show about Section 31 starring Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou in development. So even if we never get a new movie, or at least, never get a new movie with this cast, there’s still plenty to keep Trek fans busy.

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