Multiple 'Star Trek' Scripts Are Being Written Now

What the heck is going on with the Star Trek film franchise? All was quiet on the Trek front following Star Trek Beyond. Then word broke that Quentin Tarantino was developing an R-rated Star Trek film. Now, Nu-Spock himself, Zachary Quinto, has provided yet another update: multiple Star Trek scripts are in the works.

Sooner or later, we'll have another Star Trek sequel. It's as inevitable as the tides, or the change of seasons. Right now, though, everything is still up in the air. Late last year, a surprising story revealed Quentin Tarantino had pitched an R-rated Star Trek sequel idea to Paramount, and that Paramount was working to make it happen. But the Tarantino-inspired script apparently isn't the only new Trek film in the works. Speaking with Entertainment Tonight Canada, which is like Entertainment Tonight but much more polite, Star Trek actor Zachary Quinto says there are at least three different Star Trek scripts being worked on:

"First of all, I think there's a couple of scripts. Because there was a script being written before Quentin Tarantino came up with his idea for a potential film. And so I think they are kind of developing more than one. So I don't know what is going to happen. Quentin is off doing another movie. So, I feel like we are in a state of anticipation. All of us are really excited about the idea of working with Quentin on a Trek film, but I know Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, who wrote the last film, are writing a script and there are another set of writers writing a script. So I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen."

This news isn't entirely surprising. For big franchise films, studios will often have multiple writers working on multiple scripts at once. What usually happens is a studio will then pick the script they like the most, or, they'll pick elements from each script they like and combine them into one script. At the same time, it seems kind of strange that Paramount would bring in such a big name like Tarantino, but still develop other Trek projects alongside his. Of course, we still know very little about Tarantino's Trek idea. There's always a chance his film exists outside of the continuity of J.J. Abrams' rebooted Trek series, and that Paramount is hoping to make both Tarantino's film, and a more direct Trek sequel that follows Star Trek Beyond.

The last time we heard of Tarantino's Star Trek idea, Tarantino had met in a writers room with Mark L. Smith (The Revenant), Lindsey Beer (Godzilla vs. Kong), and Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3) to kick around ideas for the film. Rumor had it that Smith emerged as the frontrunner to pen the script. If that script isn't lumped in with the scripts Quinto is referring to, that could mean there are four different Star Trek screenplays in the works right now. Time will tell which ends up being produced.