Will ‘Star Trek 3’ Be Dumbed Down To Be More Inclusive?
Ask any Star Trek fan — there’s hardly a film or TV series that comes out that isn’t amid some sort of drama. Consider how many false starts the 2009 reboot Star Trek film before it finally got made. And Star Trek: Into Darkness, despite the overall quality of the film, is one that’s had a hard time gaining traction in the eyes of fans and the studio. Sure, the movie made nearly half a billion dollars at the box office (by most accounts, that would make it a success), but considering the potential of such a long-running franchise, it’s hard to be pleased with those results when other franchises are raking in a billion dollars apiece.
The problem? Maybe the mainstream audience doesn’t dig the Star Trek vibe going on. Of course, hardcore Trekkies would scoff at this notion, given the differences between the recent two films and the television series. At the end of the day, the new Star Trek had more in common with Star Wars than with Star Trek. But that didn’t stop the studio from making big changes for their upcoming Trek threequel.
Star Trek 3 was originally set to be written by Roberto Orci, who co-wrote the first two films with his former writing partner, Alex Kurtzman. There was even a stage where he was set to direct the film, but those plans have since fallen through. In an interview with The Guardian, writer/actor Simon Pegg, who picked up the script where Orci left off, outlined the studio’s concerns with Star Trek and the steps they’re taking to correct the perceived problem. According to Pegg, Orci’s original script, simply put, was a bit too Star Trek-y.
“Avengers Assemble[The UK title for 2012’s The Avengers], which is a pretty nerdy, comic-book, supposedly niche thing, made $1.5 billion dollars. Star Trek Into Darkness made half a billion, which is still brilliant.
But it means that, according to the studio, there’s still $1 billion worth of box office that don’t go and see Star Trek. And they want to know why.”
Previous reports alluded to the new Star Trek film being the most Star Trek thing to come out in a long time. With the five-year mission of discovering new worlds supposedly underway in the new movie, it makes sense that it would share some DNA with the original Trek series. But is that the direction they’re actually going?
“People don’t see [Star Trek] being a fun, brightly colored, Saturday night entertainment like The Avengers,” Pegg added. The solution? Rather than restricting the film to the sci-fi genre, they’d likely go the route of making it more of a western, thriller, or heist movie, “then populate that with Star Trek characters so it’s more inclusive to an audience that might be a little bit reticent.”
With Guardians Of The Galaxy snagging $775 million at the box office, they probably feel there’s something they’re doing wrong with their established property.
Is this the wrong direction to take the Star Trek series? Let us know your thoughts below!
[Image Credits: Screen Rant, Spindle Magazine, Master Herald]
