J.J. Abrams is one of the busiest producers in the industry, thanks largely to the exclusive development deal his Bad Robot company has with WarnerMedia, as well as his continued involvement in Paramount’s Star Trek franchise. He may have ended his association with Disney and Lucasfilm for now after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but he’s not done with blockbuster sci-fi by any stretch of the imagination.
There are currently two new Star Trek movies in active development, both of which will be overseen by Abrams and Bad Robot; one has WandaVision‘s Matt Shakman directing and a June 2023 release date locked in, while the other tasked Discovery scribe Kalinda Vasquez to pen the script, but it hasn’t been made clear where or how it fits into the larger mythology.
However, we’re hearing from our sources – the same ones who told us Discovery‘s Captain Pike was getting a spinoff long before Strange New Worlds was announced – that Paramount reportedly want Abrams to take a step back, and not be as hands-on in the development of the feature films as he was throughout the Kelvin trilogy.
Being a producer on a high-profile project doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be on set every single day, so a compromise could comfortably be reached. After all, when you look at Abrams’ upcoming slate he’s got Mission: Impossible 7 and 8, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Superman reboot, animated Dr. Seuss adaptation Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, another Cloverfield movie, Demimonde, Duster, Untamed, Zatanna, Justice League Dark, Constantine in Madame X in various stages of development under the Bad Robot banner, so free time to dabble in Star Trek will be at a minimum anyway.
