After 17 years, the Star Trek films are moving beyond the alternate continuity created by the 2009 reboot. The Kelvin timeline revived the franchise on the big screen, helped drive its television comeback and turned performers including Chris Pine and Zoe Saldaña into major stars.
The change follows the development of a new Star Trek film from Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, the filmmakers behind Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Details had been limited, but the pair have since expanded on their vision for Trek.
Goldstein and Daley described a story influenced by Crimson Tide and Training Day. It will not centre on established characters or continue the J.J. Abrams-era continuity. Instead, the film is set further in the future, in what they characterised as a different period rather than a separate timeline.
“No legacy characters, nobody that you’ve met before. A different time, not a different timeline per se, but it’s a little further in the future … It’s not the J.J. [Abrams] timeline.”
The Kelvin films helped restart Star Trek
The decision gives the new film room to establish its own identity, but it also closes the door on a run that had a significant effect across the franchise. The 2009 film brought fresh momentum to Star Trek and helped create the conditions for a wider return to television under co-writer and producer Alex Kurtzman.
That momentum extended into comics. IDW Publishing used the Kelvin setting for stories that expanded the film universe, and the success of those books supported further Star Trek comics covering different eras and corners of the franchise.
A fourth Kelvin film remained in development for years. One proposed story would have reunited Chris Pine’s James Kirk with his deceased father, George Kirk, played by Chris Hemsworth, using time travel. The project never reached cinemas. Paramount subsequently moved through several directors before selecting Goldstein and Daley.
Although the film continuity is being left behind, its design influence remains visible. Series such as Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds use a sleek visual language that sits close to the look Abrams introduced for the Enterprise.
An IDW comic provided a Kelvin-era farewell
The Kelvin setting has already received a notable conclusion in IDW’s Star Trek comic series by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly. The story brings together Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character Ben Sisko and other Starfleet figures aboard the U.S.S. Theseus as they investigate the murders of godlike beings.
Their investigation leads to Lore, the dangerous android, who activates a device capable of tearing reality apart. As the Theseus escapes the resulting destruction, it crosses into the Kelvin timeline.
The meeting between the two crews gives the comic an unexpected crossover. The characters compare their ships before the Kelvin-era team works with the Theseus crew to solve their crisis. Alongside the artwork by Angel Hernandez and the wider creative team, the story underlines how much the film reboot shaped Star Trek beyond the cinema.
For readers interested in following that story, Star Trek: When the Walls Fell collects the relevant material. The next film will take the franchise in a new direction, with no legacy characters and no return to the Abrams-era timeline.
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