‘Star Trek’ Star Simon Pegg Says Loss of Anton Yelchin Slowed Enthusiasm to Make Sequel

Brian Welk
·2 min read

Simon Pegg said that any urgency from himself or the rest of the cast and crew to make another “Star Trek” movie has slowed after the death of Anton Yelchin in 2016.

“I think losing Anton was a huge blow to our little family, and our enthusiasm to do another one might have been affected by that,” the actor said in an interview with Games Radar+ while promoting his latest film “Lost Transmissions.”

Yelchin, who played Chekov in the rebooted “Star Trek” movies, died in a freak accident in June of 2016 just a month before the third film in the franchise “Star Trek Beyond,” premiered.

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But Pegg also said that the powers that be didn’t capitalize on the 50th anniversary of “Star Trek” in the third film’s marketing and that the budget might be too great to justify a fourth film.

“The fact is, Star Trek movies don’t make Marvel money,” Pegg said in the interview. “They make maybe $500m at the most, and to make one now, on the scale they’ve set themselves, is $200m. You have to make three times that to make a profit. I don’t feel like the last one… They didn’t really take advantage of the 50th anniversary. The regimen at the time dropped the ball on the promo of the film. And we’ve lost momentum.”

“Star Trek Beyond” made $343 million at the worldwide box office against a budget of $185 million.

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“Fargo” and “Legion” creator Noah Hawley had been hired to direct a fourth installment in the “Star Trek” franchise for Paramount in which stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban and Pegg were all expected to return.

There’s also been talk of Quentin Tarantino’s “Star Trek” film for years. The “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” director previously pitched an R-rated version of “Star Trek” to J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and to Paramount, and for some time he was even angling to direct it. But he confirmed back in January that he would most likely remove himself from the project. In fact, Pegg predicted as much back in 2018. Tarantino has indicated time and again that his upcoming tenth film will be his last.

Read original story ‘Star Trek’ Star Simon Pegg Says Loss of Anton Yelchin Slowed Enthusiasm to Make Sequel At TheWrap