Matt Shakman is suddenly a director in high demand, but it seems he won’t be able to juggle every job that’s come his way. Shortly after news broke that the former WandaVision maestro had landed Marvel’s coveted Fantastic Four gig, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that he would no longer be helming Star Trek 4 for Paramount. Shakman had been announced as the man guiding Chris Pine’s Trek franchise towards its long-awaited fourth entry in the summer of 2021. THR reports the search for his replacement will begin immediately, and it’s not clear whether the creative change will impact the film’s planned release date of Dec. 22nd, 2023.
Paramount Pictures released the following statement regarding Shakman’s exit:
Matt Shakman is an incredibly talented filmmaker, and we regret the timing didn’t align for him to direct our upcoming Star Trek film. We are grateful for his many contributions, are excited about the creative vision of this next chapter and look forward to bringing it to audiences all around world.
Paramount Pictures
Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana and John Cho are still expected to reprise their roles alongside Pine as the crew of the famous Enterprise. They were last seen together in 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, which was directed by Justin Lin. Josh Friedman and Cameron Squires, working from a Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet draft, wrote the most recent version of the fourth film’s script.
Source: THR
