William Shatner Reveals What’s Next for Quentin Tarantino’s R-Rated Star Trek

Paramount is shaking up Star Trek again. The current TV wave is winding down, a new batch of movies is getting teed up, and the studio just put the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves duo in charge of the next film. As of CinemaCon 2026, they still are not saying what it is about, which kept one very specific fan dream on life support: Quentin Tarantino doing an R-rated Trek. And then William Shatner walked in and pulled the plug.

Shatner shuts the door on Tarantino's Trek

At Liverpool Comic-Con, Shatner was asked (again) if his pal and notorious Kirk superfan Quentin Tarantino might still make his long-rumored Star Trek movie. His answer could not have been clearer:

'No.'

'It is past its time. He has passed his time, and I have...'

That puts a period on a project that turned into legend over the last few years — the kind of thing that spawns endless forum threads, wish lists, and 'what if' timelines.

What Tarantino's Trek would have been

Back in 2023, Mark L. Smith — the writer who worked on Tarantino's Trek script — said the movie would have been a full-throttle, hard-R take. Think sharp edges and stylized bursts of violence more than wall-to-wall f-bombs, with Tarantino's vibe all over it. He even argued it could have been the high-water mark for Trek on the big screen, not because of his pages but because of how Tarantino planned to shoot it.

Smith also framed it as a deliberate shake-up, the way Thor: Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy jolted the Marvel formula. The pitch was a different feel for Star Trek, not just another coat of paint on the Enterprise.

So what is Paramount actually making?

Here is what is official: Paramount has a new Star Trek movie in development from directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Honor Among Thieves). Here is what is not official: literally any plot specifics. As of CinemaCon 2026, the studio said nothing concrete on story or cast.

Early reporting around the project suggested the pair might skip J.J. Abrams' Kelvin Timeline entirely — meaning no automatic return for Chris Pine and that crew — and maybe even avoid familiar characters altogether. The phrase floating around has been 'a completely new take,' supposedly not tied to past shows or films. None of that has been stamped as the plan, but it is the direction being whispered.

Where this leaves the franchise

With Shatner calling time on Tarantino's Trek, the path forward looks simpler even if it is not any clearer. Paramount is moving from a crowded TV era into a movie rethink, and the next film could reset expectations.

• Return to the Kelvin Timeline with Pine's Kirk and company: possible, but early chatter says the new team may steer away from it.
• Recast the classic crew for a fresh reboot: always an option, not hinted at yet.
• Start clean with new characters and a new corner of the universe: this is the rumored angle, but still unconfirmed.

Bottom line: Tarantino's Trek is done. The Goldstein/Daley movie is the ball to watch now — and until Paramount stops being coy about story, the smartest bet is a reset that does not owe anything to what came before.