Noah Hawley Finally Reveals the Star Behind Paramount’s Decision to Kill His Star Trek Movie

Noah Hawley almost made a new Star Trek movie. Then the studio changed hands, everyone got nervous about rocking the boat, and his version quietly died. Now, after the Paramount–Skydance merger, it is officially, completely toast. Hawley laid out what happened and what he was trying to do on the SmartLess podcast, and it says a lot about where Trek has been — and where it might be headed next.

So what killed Hawley’s Trek?

Short version: leadership whiplash. Hawley had a Star Trek film set up at Paramount before his recent Alien: Earth success. Then Jim Gianopulos was running the studio, brought in a new exec to steer the film side, and that team pulled the plug on Hawley’s movie. Their logic, per Hawley: if they were going to make a Trek film, better to play it safe with a 'transition' movie that kept Chris Pine’s cast in the mix rather than risk something new. Hawley’s project faded out from there. Post-merger, it isn’t coming back.

Meanwhile, a new creative plan is in motion. Recent reports say Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley are set to helm the next wave of Star Trek movies.

Hawley’s pitch: back to brains-over-phasers

Hawley’s take was built around the idea that Trek works best when it is about exploration and problem-solving — not nonstop space warfare. He contrasted it with other mega-franchises that live in perpetual battle mode.

'Star Wars is war, and Marvel is war. But Star Trek isn’t war. Star Trek is exploration, right? It’s people solving problems by being smarter than the other guy.'

His goal was to bring that original-series DNA back to the movies: morality puzzles, diplomacy, scientific curiosity, and crews outthinking impossible situations.

Why that rubs against the Kelvin movies

The Chris Pine trilogy did solid business and mostly positive with critics and audiences. But it leaned hard into spectacle: big set pieces, louder stakes, faster cuts — more space opera than space anthropology. If you grew up on Trek as a weekly thought experiment, those films could feel like slick, slightly generic blockbusters wearing a Starfleet uniform.

• Star Trek (2009): 94% critics / 91% audience on Rotten Tomatoes; $385M worldwide
• Star Trek Into Darkness (2013): 84% critics / 89% audience; $467M worldwide
• Star Trek Beyond (2016): 86% critics / 80% audience; $343M worldwide

Where it goes from here

With Goldstein and Daley steering, Paramount is aiming for a fresh start on the big-screen side. Hawley’s exploratory, puzzle-box version isn’t happening, but the philosophy he outlined is the kind of course correction a lot of longtime fans have been craving since the last trilogy.

If you want to revisit the Kelvin era, all three movies are streaming on Paramount+ in the US.

Would you rather see a return-to-roots exploration movie, or another Pine-era-style crowd-pleaser? I’m curious where you land.