Having played the role of Scotty in theStar Trekfranchise since the 2009 reboot of the sci-fi franchise,Simon Pegghas come to appreciate the fans of the show. During a recent interview withSiriusXM, theShaun of the Deadactor was asked about his time working on various franchises such asStar Trek, Star WarsandDoctor Who, and specifically which of the franchises had the hardest fans to please. Although creating additions to any long-standing franchise, or rebooting the show or movie entirely is always going to annoy some people, Pegg was full of praise for Trekkies for being so inclusive of the characters that appear in the franchise. He said:
“I find that Star Trek fans have always been very, very inclusive. You know, Star Trek’s about diversity. It has been since 1966; it always was. There’s no sort of, like, ‘Oh, you’re suddenly being woke now.’ Star Trek was woke from the beginning. You had a Japanese navigator, just after the Second World War. There was a Black woman on the deck in a position of authority. This is massively progressive. Star Wars, suddenly there’s a little more diversity, and everyone’s kicking off about it, and it’s really sad, you know.”
His comments came after he explained that he believes thatStar Warshas the hardest fans to please, with some becoming unnecessarily toxic when expressing their opinions and criticisms of some of the more recent entries in theStar Warssaga.
Related:Star Trek 4 Production is ‘Getting Close to the Starting Line’ Says Paramount President
Simon Pegg Could Return in a FourthStar TrekMovie
Since the underperformance ofStar Trek Beyondin 2016, the rebooted franchise has been in limbo. Over the last few years there have been reports that a new movie was moving ahead, but then main cast members, including Chris Pine, had walked away from the project after being asked to take a pay cut based on the previous movie’s poor performance. While it was reported in 2019 that talks were underway once more to get a sequel moving, it seemed thatQuentin Tarantino was also in contention to produce aStar Trekmovieat one point.
In early 2021, Paramount announced that a newStar Trekinstallment was once again in development, this time withStar Trek: Discoverywriter Kalinda Vazquez writing the script, and it was even given a release date of June 2023. However, over time that date has reportedly slipped back to December 2023, J.J. Abrams has reportedly returned to produce the movie, but it will not be based on the Vazquez script. As of February this year, Paramount was hopeful of getting the fourth entry in the newStar Trekseries shooting in late 2022, and was in talks with all of the main cast members, including Pegg, for them to reprise their roles once again.
Since then, there have been no updates on how the project is moving along, so once again, fans of this particular branch of theStar Trekcanon are left drifting in space as they await any concrete news on when and indeed if Kirk and his crew will be heading off into the final frontier once more.
