Ten things you need to know about... star trek

Where does the crew of the USS Enterprise boldly go next?

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Following on from 2016’s Star Trek: Beyond, a fourth movie in the ‘Kelvin’ reboot universe — and the 14th Trek film overall — is now in pre-production, bringing Kirk and co back to the Enterprise once more.

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For the first time in the series’ storied film history, there will be a female captain at the helm — behind the camera, at least — with S.J. Clarkson having signed on as the film’s director.

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Clarkson is best known for her TV work, which has included directing episodes of Life On Mars, Dexter, The Defenders and Season 2 of Jessica Jones. She also directed all four parts of Carey Mulligan BBC miniseries Collateral.

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The as-yet-untitled Trek is being written by J.D. Payne and Patrick Mckay, both of whom worked (uncredited) on Simon Pegg’s script for Beyond.

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As for what the film’s about, the rumour is that it will — unsurprisingly for Star Trek — involve time travel, and reintroduce a character we haven’t seen since his fiery demise at the helm of the USS Kelvin: Kirk’s Father.

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Played by a pre-thor Chris Hemsworth in the 2009 reboot, George Kirk gave his life so that his pregnant wife and unborn son could escape the assault by Eric Bana’s rampaging Romulan, Nero. Pine is confirmed to return as James T — perhaps some of those pervading daddy issues will be salved.

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Will he be resurrected by a terraforming probe as in Star Trek III? Could it be an evil clone à la Nemesis? Someone from the mirror universe like Discovery? Stuck in the Nexus from Star Trek: Generations? Given the talk of time travel, it seems far more likely Papa George is pulled unceremoniously into the present, or Kirk is catapulted back to encounter him in the past.

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The entire crew is expected to return, with the exception of Pavel Chekov. After Anton Yelchin’s tragic death in 2016, producer J.J. Abrams has said that they won’t consider re-casting the role.

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This Star Trek movie is not to be confused with the proposed Star Trek from Quentin Tarantino, which is planned to go into production afterwards and which Tarantino may or may not direct.

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Tarantino’s Star Trek — based off a “wild” idea the director is said to have had for the franchise — will not only come after this movie, but is said to be entirely separate, potentially rebooting the series once more for an entirely new set of characters.