Will Star Trek Sequel Beam Out of Summer 2011?
Mon, October 12, 2009 
It was a gamble. Reboot the Star Trek franchise. Instead of hitting the “Reset” button and starting things 100% anew, the filmmakers decided to stay true to classic Trek lore. But reboot the series using time-travel resulting in a new alternate reality/continuity. Yep, that sounded like a pretty damn retarded way to go. But to the credit of director J.J. Abrams and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, it worked. Not only that, but the average movie-going public and hard-core Trekkers alike ate it up to the tune of near $400 million across the globe. More importantly, they want more and as soon as possible.
Merely a month before its release and seeing this positive reception coming, Paramount went ahead and hired K&O along with producer Damon Lindelof to pen the sequel with Abrams returning in a producer role (as well as a strong, but still unconfirmed, chance of another go-around in the director’s chair). The first draft was to be turned in by this coming December with phasers set for summer 2011 release. Since then, it’s been mum regarding the status of Star Trek 2.
Whenever Orci and Kurtzman were doing press for outside projects (their television series Fringe starting its second season, The Proposal which they executive-produced or Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen that they co-wrote), the topic of the forthcoming Trek sequel always came up with the same basic answer, “We’re still shooting around ideas.” Fair enough.
Funny thing is this past weekend; Team Abrams were promoting the forthcoming DVD/Blu-Ray release of their reboot. Not surprisingly, the sequel was brought up and once again came the “We’re still shooting around ideas” response. Uh, we’re in the middle of October and things are still in the “tossing the ball around” stage? To be fair, they could be pulling our leg and it’s further along than that. Plus, screenplays can (and have) been banged quickly. But it’s odd that they’re taking their sweet-ass time on the sequel when it’s supposed to hit multiplexes for summer 2011 – especially for something as highly anticipated as this.
That is, unless it’s been pushed back. Think about it for a minute. The way things stand right now, Paramount already has three tentpoles lined up for that summer (not including Trek). You’ve got Transformers 3, Thor and Captain America. Unless one of those gets delayed (which would probably be “The First Avenger” considering how it’s been forever and a day since we heard anything on it), I can’t imagine Star Trek 2 hitting that summer. What studio wants to release four $200 million+ films in one summer?
There’s also the issue of said summer being over-stuffed as it is. In addition to the afore-mentioned Paramount properties, there’s also Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows – Part II, Spider-Man 4, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Green Lantern, The Hangover 2, Cars 2, Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom and Peter Berg’s Battleship. Where the Hell could Trek 2 fit into that?
If that’s the case, where does it move to? Well there’s Christmas 2011 - ironic considering the first film was originally supposed to hit cinemas for December 2008 and wound up in May 2009. More likely, it would instead beam into silver screens for summer 2012 considering it’s currently not-so-packed with would-be blockbusters unlike 2011. Paramount already has The Avengers for May 4, 2012 and Pixar’s Newt aiming for June. Then there’s properties like John Carter of Mars, the Wolverine sequel and, of course, Batman III which don’t have specific dates locked in for release. Yet.
Regardless of when we ultimately see Kirk, Spock, Bones & Co. return, it's going to do killer business simply due to the popularity of the first film. The last time I remember hearing folks say, "I can't wait for the next one!" was after walking out of Batman Begins and Transformers. Needless to say, their sequels made a dent at the box-office - an understatement, I realize.
Keep in mind, this is 100% a hunch on my part. Could I be dead wrong? Absolutely. And if so, I'll gladly eat my words because (like many of you) I can't wait for the next Trek installment. But I'm gonna stick to my gut-feeling on this one. I think Star Trek 2 (or whatever the Hell they ultimately call it) will be released for summer 2012 instead of 2011 as originally announced.
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