One might think that Star Trek 4 losing both Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth is as catastrophic as the Klingons and the Romulans joining forces against Starfleet.
Surprisingly though, one prominent producer thinks there's no need to panic. Earlier this month, it was announced that both Pine and Hemsworth had both walked away from the franchise over a salary dispute.
Hemsworth was to have reprised his role from 2009's Star Trek as James T Kirk's long-dead father George, but the studio apparently wanted them to take pay cuts on an existing contractual agreement.
Related: The future of the Star Trek franchise explained: WTF is going on with the TV shows and movies?
In spite of this behind-the-scenes chaos, Adi Shankar — producer of Dredd, The Grey and Lone Survivor — thinks it's very possible for Star Trek 4's executive producer JJ Abrams and studio Paramount Pictures to save the movie.
"Losing Pine and Kirk is not a big deal and kind of cool. Actors don't matter, stories do," Shankar insisted to Screenrant.
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Shankar went on to suggest that losing the two Kirks would actually allow Star Trek to reinvent itself by shifting the focus to other members of the Enterprise crew.
[Adi Shankar]
"This is the universe presenting an opportunity to do something different and boldly go where no suits have gone before," the producer argued.
Whether Abrams and company take his advice remains to be seen. They're concurrently working on a separate Star Trek project conceived by Quentin Tarantino, which could potentially now be bumped up the production slate.
Simon Pegg (aka Scotty) recently offered some insight on Tarantino's concept, promising that it would not merely be "Pulp Fiction in space" with grotesque levels of violence and gore.
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Justin is a freelance entertainment journalist and writer. He first joined Digital Spy as a freelance entertainment reporter in 2010 and also worked as a sub-editor for the brand, serving as Night News Editor from 2016 to 2024. Over more than a decade, Justin has covered numerous major entertainment events from the US and has interviewed a wide-ranging group of public figures, from comedian Steve Coogan to icons from the Star Trek universe, cast members from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reality stars from numerous Real Housewives cities and the Below Deck franchise. Justin has also been on the ground to cover major pop culture events like the Star Wars Celebration and the D23 Expo. He's written for titles across the Hearst network, plus the likes of CBR and Us Weekly.
