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New ‘Star Trek’ Movie in the Works From ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Writer Kalinda Vazquez

Boldly going where only men have gone before, “Fear the Walking Dead” co-executive producer Kalinda Vazquez is writing an original “Star Trek” movie for Paramount Pictures, with J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot producing. Should the film get a greenlight, Vazquez would be the first woman ever to pen a “Star Trek” feature.

There are no details yet on the nature of Vazquez’s approach, including whether it would include any previously established “Star Trek” characters. But Vazquez has recently written episodes of the burgeoning galaxy of “Trek” TV series now streaming on Paramount Plus. In 2019, she wrote “Ask Not,” an episode of “Star Trek: Short Treks” in which Capt. Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) tests a Starfleet cadet. And in 2020, Vazquez wrote the teleplay for “Terra Firma, Part 2,” an episode of “Star Trek: Discovery” set almost entirely in the Mirror Universe, in which the benevolent Federation is instead the bloodthirsty Terran Empire.

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Along with her work on “Trek” and “Fear the Walking Dead,” Vazquez has written on episodes of “Runaways,” “Once Upon a Time” and “Nikita.” She’s also currently writing a Marvel comics run about America Chavez, the first Latinx LBGTQ Marvel superhero to get their own title series. And she’s reportedly developing an adaptation of the sci-fi novel “Roadmarks” for HBO with George R.R. Martin.

Vazquez’s “Star Trek” project is the latest in a string of “Trek” features still under development at Paramount. In 2017, Quentin Tarantino partnered with Abrams and Bad Robot on a prospective feature ultimately written by Mark L. Smith (“The Revenant”), though Tarantino’s commitment to direct the project appears tenuous at best. In August, Paramount also elected to pause work on a “Star Trek” feature from writer-director Noah Hawley (FX’s “Fargo”), after Emma Watts stepped in as studio president. Hawley told Variety that his project would “start from scratch” with a new set of characters who have an explicit link to established “Trek” canon.

Deadline first reported the news.

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