Simon Pegg has much to say about the direction of the Star Trek 4 movie

With the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media (creating Paramount Skydance Corporation) pending, the fate of Star Trek TV and movie projects is uncertain. And after years of false starts with a Star Trek 4 movie, it’s anyone’s guess as to when we will see our favorite crew of the USS Enterprise (on the big screen) exploring the Alpha Quadrant anytime soon.

However, Simon Pegg, who portrays Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the Star Trek Kelvin Timeline franchise movies, has an opinion on what just might work. In a recent Variety interview, Simon played a game on his skills to identify his lines from his movies, when he got a question about a line as Scotty from Star Trek Into Darkness.

Simon joked that he didn't recognize the line because "I didn't read it in the right accent." Which moved the topic to his opinion on Star Trek 4, when he expressed his thoughts on Star Trek in general and his interpretation of meaningful filmmaking:

"I'd love to do a fourth movie...These days, everything becomes very gritty…How do we make this thing, which is essentially quite youthful?...Although I would argue that the original Star Trek series wasn't childish. It was actually quite sophisticated. Things don’t have to be gritty and dark to be adult. Science fiction doesn’t have to be full of death and swearing…to be consumed by adults.”

Simon is often the comic relief in his films, as is the case with his portrayal of the Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise. However, sidestepping levity for a moment, Simon wants Star Trek 4 to take a different direction when he said this:

"I'd like to see Star Trek kind of get back to the spirit of The Original Series a little bit. And get out there on that five-year mission, although we've completed our five-year mission. So, if we did another one, it’ll be interested to see what we do next.”

Given how successful the franchise has been, we can't imagine Paramount doesn't want to find a way to bring the franchise back to the big screen. The question continues to remain: Will the next film kick off a new franchise or will we finally get a fourth film in the Chris Pine-led franchise?

Simon’s sentiment to create a Star Trek 4 reminiscent of TOS with serious themes without being dark and gritty is intriguing and certainly worth consideration for Star Trek creators to ponder. TOS Scotty once said, "I cannot change the laws of physics!" in response to Captain Kirk, who often pushed his crew's talents to their limits; however, I'm encouraged it will take much less than a quantum anomaly to get Star Trek 4 into theaters!