Paramount heightens hilarious “Star Trek 4 is happening” joke by hiring another new screenwriter

Among Hollywood’s funniest running gags (just behind “director hired for Star Wars film” and Sony’s ongoing Spider-Man minus Spider-Man universe), Paramount is doubling down on its long-running Star Trek 4 bit. In the latest news from a movie we sincerely doubt will ever be made, Paramount has hired a screenwriter to write the fourth and final J.J. Abrams-produced Star Trek movie. Per Variety, Steve Yockey, who created Max’s The Flight Attendant, will join the ranks of unlucky writers paid to will into existence another Chris Pine-led Star Trek movie. Yockey also wrote for the Scream TV series, Supernatural, and Doom Patrol. Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know what his Trek script is about because, since 2016, which, to be clear, was nearly a decade ago, Paramount has hired the following writers to pen Star Trek 4:

1) J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay (Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power)

2) Noah Hawley (FX’s Fargo, Alien)

3) Kaline Vazquez (Prison Break)

4) Lindsey Beer (Pet Semetary: Bloodlines) and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel)

Yockey now becomes the latest writer to tackle what is, essentially, a remake of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Of course, the lack of movement on a Star Trek movie hasn’t damaged Paramount’s warp drive. In the years since Star Trek Beyond left theaters, the studio launched Star Trek: Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds—and we didn’t even include Star Trek Shorts. There’s also a Star Trek prequel film from Andor’s Toby Haynes and a streaming movie, Star Trek: Section 31, supposedly on the way.

So will Paramount, after eight years of development, finally land on a script for a Star Trek adventure that gets the green light? That would certainly be a hell of a punchline.