Star Trek: Simon Pegg says future movies are unlikely, blames Marvel and ‘loss of momentum’

Simon Pegg has said future Star Trek movies are unlikely, and that the blame lies at the feet of Marvel.

The British actor, who played Scotty in the trilogy of recent Star Trek movies spearheaded by JJ Abrams, said the economics of the film industry mean the franchise may be over.

“The fact is, Star Trek movies don’t make Marvel money,” Pegg told GamesRadar. “They make maybe $500 million at the most, and to make one now, on the scale they’ve set themselves, is $200 million. You have to make three times that to make a profit.”

The last entry in the current Star Trek franchise, which also features Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana and Zachary Quinto, was a box office disappointment. Star Trek Beyond, which was released in 2016, grossed $343m (£267m) worldwide on a budget of $185m (£144m).

It also earned more than a $100m less than the previous entry, 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness.

Pegg additionally said that eagerness to return to Star Trek had been dimmed by the death of Anton Yelchin, who portrayed Chekov and was killed in a freak car accident in 2016.

“We’ve lost momentum,” he explained. “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 future of the cinematic Star Trek franchise had been in question even prior to Pegg’s comments.

A Star Trek movie to be headlined by Pine and Chris Hemsworth, who had cameoed in the first film in the new series as Captain Kirk’s father, has been stuck in development since 2018.

Last year, Quentin Tarantino also declared that he had moved on from a speculated R-rated Star Trek movie he was interested in writing and directing.

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