Hints drop of plenty more Star Trek to come, on screens big and small

The focus of most Trekkies is currently on Star Trek Beyond, the third film in the reboot film series, which is due out this summer. Paramount Pictures, on the other hand, is already looking beyond the sci-fi action film to the next potential installment in the franchise. In a promising sign for the movies’ future, the studio registered the title Star Trek 4 today with the Motion Picture Association of America, reports TrekMovie.

With stars Chris Pine (Captain Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Commander Spock) contracted for a fourth Star Trek, it was already clear that Paramount wanted to leave the possibility open. At this point, Star Trek 4 is still only a hypothetical, but registering the title is one more step along the path to making it a reality. In doing so, the studio has reserved the title, which, ironically, seems likely to only be a placeholder. The reboot series hasn’t been using numbers in its titles so far, so we’d expect consistency moving forward.

Paramount hasn’t announced a green light for Star Trek 4 yet and may be waiting to see how the Justin Lin-directed Star Trek Beyond performs first; Star Trek Into the Darkness fell short of Star Trek‘s box office success, with the films bringing in $228.78 million and $257.73 million, respectively, according to Box Office Mojo data. However, seeing as how both earned well more than the studio’s biggest grosser of 2015, Mission: Imposible – Rogue Nation ($195.04 million), we’d expect the reboot series to continue to be appealing to Paramount.

Meanwhile, the franchise is also returning to TV (but mostly streaming) thanks to CBS TV Studios. The production company announced in a tweet today that filming begins in Toronto this fall.

This just in! The new #STARTREK TV series will set course for Toronto and begin filming this fall. #CBSAllAccess

— CBS TV Studios (@CBSTVStudios) May 2, 2016

We’ll have to wait and see how the upcoming film and TV series affect the future of the franchise. Star Trek Beyond opens on July 22.