Star Trek 4 should become a crossover film with Star Trek: Discovery so that Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) meets Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) on the big screen. The fourth J.J. Abrams-produced Star Trek movie remains mired in development hell despite Chris Pine and the cast's eagerness to crew the Starship Enterprise once more. Meanwhile, Star Trek: Discovery's upcoming fifth season will end the flagship Paramount+ Trek show. The solution to both dilemmas could be a historic crossover movie.
Jonathan Frakes, one of the most successful directors of Star Trek movies and TV, recently indicated his "understanding" that Paramount Pictures has exclusive rights to make Star Trek feature films while Paramount+ has dominion over Star Trek TV shows. This divide means that the only Star Trek movies that can be made will be set in J.J. Abrams' alternate Kelvin Timeline, and Paramount+ cannot produce Star Trek movies made for streaming based upon their TV series. Meanwhile, Pine lamented that the studio's focus on Star Trek competing with billion-dollar IPs like the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a mistake, and Star Trek 4 could be better served as a film made on a modest budget targeted to hardcore Star Trek fans. A crossover film between J.J. Abrams' Star Trek and Star Trek Discovery could be the best of both worlds.
