Paramount Skydance’s next Star Trek movie is shaping up to be a genuine clean slate — and possibly the furthest the franchise has ever ventured into its own future. The tease dropped during the Directors on Directing panel at San Diego Comic-Con on July 24, 2026, hosted by Collider’s Steven Weintraub, a full day before the big Star Trek Hall H panel scheduled for July 25.
The panel brought together Resident Evil director Zach Cregger alongside writing duo Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley. The pair — best known for Spider-Man: Homecoming and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves — were confirmed as the writers on the reboot back in November 2025, but details have been almost nonexistent ever since. Weintraub wasted little time putting them on the spot.
According to Goldstein and Daley, the script is still in progress, and they were candid about one thing fans should not expect: familiar faces. Previous Star Trek films have leaned heavily on nostalgia, either bringing back the original casts of shows like The Original Series and The Next Generation, or recasting iconic roles with new actors, as J.J. Abrams did with the Kelvin timeline. This reboot appears to be walking away from all of that.
The most intriguing detail concerned the setting. Goldstein revealed the film will take place “further in the future than we’ve been before.” That’s a bold claim for a franchise that has already spent decades pushing its timeline outward.
Here’s the wrinkle. Star Trek is set in humanity’s own future, but exactly how far depends on which series you count:
- If you include recent shows like Discovery and Starfleet Academy, the franchise has already reached the 32nd Century — though getting there required a hefty dose of time-travel shenanigans.
- If you set those aside, Star Trek has only canonically reached the 24th Century.
Whichever benchmark Goldstein and Daley are measuring against, the implication is the same: this movie wants to plant its flag somewhere new. That gives the writers room to honor everything that came before while building a story unburdened by existing characters and continuity — a reinvention rather than a remix.
It’s a smart pitch on paper. A distant-future setting sidesteps the constant fan debate over which timeline a film “belongs” to, and frees the creative team from having to serve legacy cast members. Whether that translates into something audiences actually want to watch is another matter entirely — one the script, still being written, will ultimately decide.
For now, this is a tease rather than a trailer. The July 25 Hall H panel should offer more concrete details on where — and when — this new Enterprise is headed.
