A New ‘Star Trek’ Prequel Film Is in the Works at Paramount

Star Trek keeps moving further and further back in time. The space franchise is constantly growing – it counts 13 movies and the original Star Trek TV show has quite literally been renamed Star Trek: The Original Series to differentiate it from all its spin-offs.

The latest addition to the Star Trek saga, however, arrives in the form of a film. The news was announced at Paramount CinemaCon and while there aren’t any specific plot details, the movie will serve as a prequel to 2009’s Star Trek, which was directed by J.J. Abrams and starred Chris Pine as James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock.

For the forthcoming Paramount film, Toby Hanes, who directed Andor, will be directing the flick, while Abrams will return to produce. Seth Grahame-Smith is writing the script. Paramount has yet to give word on a potential timeline or cast for the film.

Paramount has begun development on and then ultimately scrapped several Star Trek spin-offs in the past few years, including a Quentin Tarantino-directed project, so fans shouldn’t bank on any particular project making it to theaters until there’s actually a trailer.