By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Recently, Star Trek fans got the sad news that Paramount officially killed plans for a fourth Kelvinverse movie that would have continued the adventures of Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk and Zachary Quinto’s Spock. That movie might have united the fandom and helped demonstrate that the studio was serious about treating its best franchise right in the wake of the merger with Skydance.
Fortunately, the one director who can save Star Trek is already working for Paramount: Edgar Wright, who is currently finishing up directing a reboot of The Running Man.
The Wright Stuff
While Wright has never previously directed a Star Trek episode or film, his ties with the franchise run deeper than you think. The Scott Pilgrim director originally met Simon Pegg when they both worked on the Spaced TV show, and Wright helped make the actor into a household name with the breakout horror hit Shaun of the Dead. Later, the actor was cast as Scotty in Star Trek (2009), and when he went to visit Pegg on the set of Star Trek Into Darkness, Wright ended up directing a second unit shot featuring hapless Klingons getting killed.
Those franchise connections are nice, but the main reasons I want Wright to helm a Trek movie have everything to do with his work on other franchises. The success of movies like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz cemented Wright as a great comic director, and I’d certainly love to see more humor in the fictional world that Gene Roddenberry built.
Set Your Phasers to Funny
Outside of the excellent Lower Decks, the franchise has often struggled with comedy, with jokes that are too broad (like the slapstick humor of Star Trek V), too quippy (like the first Kelvinverse film), or too weird (like every Ferengi episode). With Wright’s involvement, though, we could have a film even funnier than Star Trek IV: The Final Frontier, winning over mainstream audiences who might not otherwise go see a nerdy sci-fi film. This would give Paramount a win right when the studio wants to put Star Trek back on the Hollywood map.
Of course, Edgar Wright is adept at other genres: with Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, he created an action masterpiece that blended kinetic video game aesthetics and Millennial sensibilities into one slick, anime-inspired package. With Baby Driver, he transformed the car chase genre into a high-octane thrill ride with all the charm of the Wachowskis’ Speed Racer and all the jazzy glee of Cowboy Bebop. With Last Night in Soho, the versatile director showed that he could deliver horror as viscerally traumatizing as Shaun of the Dead was irreverently amusing.
Right now, your question is likely “sure, but what can Wright do for Star Trek?” Based on the examples above, the clear answer is whatever he wants to do. That’s kind of the point: Wright is one of the most versatile and bankable directors in Hollywood, and he can take the franchise in any direction that it needs to (ahem) boldly go.
Star Trek’s Ongoing Identity Crisis
This is especially important because Paramount itself seemingly doesn’t have a solid idea of what Star Trek should be: Discovery and Picard were dark and gritty, Strange New Worlds is light and breezy, Lower Decks was lighthearted fluff, and Section 31 was a brainless, Marvel-style adventure. Until just this past week, the studio was weighing two completely different Trek films and ultimately decided to drop the fourth Kelvinverse movie in favor of taking the franchise in a new direction.
Well, nobody knows how to make films unpredictably fresh and exciting like Edgar Wright, and he’s the one man who can breathe new life into a franchise that’s been (let’s face it) really showing its age in recent years. He’s redefined one genre after another while delivering a series of unforgettable films, and he’s currently working for Paramount on the upcoming Running Man movie. Here’s hoping someone in charge of Trek makes him a job offer while he’s there, because without someone this visionary in the driver’s seat, it will be nearly impossible to steer this franchise away from mediocrity and towards success.
Second reboot to the right. And straight on, ‘til morning.
