9 Unmade Star Trek Movies, Ranked By How Much We Wish They'd Happened

Published Oct 29, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT Sky Blanton is a Movie Contributor at ScreenRant with professional experience covering movies, television, and pop culture. Her published work spans news, interviews, features, and opinion pieces, with a focus on film, franchise storytelling, and the entertainment industry. She earned her bachelor's degree in Communications with a concentration in Professional Writing and a minor in Business Writing from Southern New Hampshire University. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Star Trek has never been afraid to get a little strange with its movies. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan brought back a villain Kirk had abandoned on Ceti Alpha V, while The Voyage Home sent the Enterprise crew to 1986 San Francisco to find humpback whales. First Contact went in another direction entirely, with Picard battling the Borg while trying to make sure humanity's first encounter with aliens happened as it should. It's hard to imagine three more Star Trek movies, yet all of them gave their crews something memorable to do. Hollywood has considered making plenty of Star Trek movies that audiences never got to see. Some made it far enough for writers to finish scripts, directors to sign on, and actors to discuss returning to their roles. A few even had concept art showing what their ships and settings might have looked like. Others barely got past the planning stages before Paramount moved on. Reading about them can be frustrating, especially when you come across an idea that sounds like it could have made a great movie. There's no telling how these projects would have turned out. Of course, some of these movies might have been underwhelming if they'd actually been made. However, certain projects promised reunions between beloved characters or stories set during important events in Federation history. Some would have challenged beloved Star Trek characters in ways we'd never seen before. 9 Star Trek: The God Thing Gene Roddenberry's original idea for a Star Trek movie involved Admiral Kirk reuniting the Enterprise crew to investigate a mysterious force approaching Earth. The entity claimed to be God, but Roddenberry had something stranger planned. According to The Times of Israel, the being could assume different appearances, including Jesus Christ. GameSpot also reported that Kirk would eventually get into a physical fight with the alien, refusing to accept its claims of divinity. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier eventually explored the idea of a powerful alien pretending to be God, but Roddenberry's version could have taken the Enterprise crew into much stranger territory. Seeing Kirk and Spock confront a being that could take the form of different religious figures would have raised some interesting questions about how they decide what deserves their trust. 8 Star Trek: The Beginning Star Trek: Enterprise ended before audiences could see the Earth-Romulan War, but writer Erik Jendresen wanted to bring that conflict to theaters. His proposed film, Star Trek: The Beginning, would have followed Tiberius Chase, an ancestor of James T. Kirk, after a devastating Romulan attack on Earth. According to R/Film, Chase was a military pilot who would lead a dangerous mission into Romulan territory, giving audiences a closer look at the war that helped bring the Federation together. It's disappointing that we never got to see how humanity survived that conflict, especially after Enterprise spent years showing Earth building relationships with other worlds. Jendresen even planned a trilogy, as mentioned by Rotten Tomatoes, which could have explored the war and its aftermath rather than rushing through everything in one movie. 7 Star Trek: IMAX Miles O'Brien spent years keeping Deep Space Nine running, but Paramount almost gave him a movie of his own. In 1997, producer Rick Berman and writer Hans Tobeason developed a roughly 40-minute Star Trek adventure designed for IMAX 3D. As reported by R/Film, Colm Meaney was expected to return as O'Brien, while David Warner was reportedly attached to reprise Klingon Chancellor Gorkon from The Undiscovered Country. Considering Gorkon had already been assassinated, seeing how those two characters could share a story would've been interesting. The script was completed, but disagreements over business arrangements between Paramount and IMAX prevented the project from moving forward (via Den of Geek). It's disappointing that O'Brien came so close to leading a theatrical Star Trek adventure, especially one filmed for an enormous 3D screen. 6 Star Trek: The First Adventure Image credit: Paramount+ Imagine Ethan Hawke playing a young James T. Kirk opposite John Cusack as Spock. Producer Harve Bennett considered both actors for Star Trek: The First Adventure, an abandoned sixth film about Kirk, Spock, and McCoy's years at Starfleet Academy (via StarTrekNews). The screenplay explored Kirk's first heartbreak, Spock's struggles with prejudice, and an early adventure involving an enslaved planet (via Space.Com). Bennett even planned for William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy to return, with an older Kirk recalling his Academy days. Kirk and Spock have always had very different personalities, so seeing them meet as young cadets, argue, and gradually learn to trust each other would've been fun. The 2009 reboot eventually explored their rocky beginnings, but Bennett's version could have shown how the friendship we knew from the original series first developed. 5 Noah Hawley's Star Trek Movie Fargo creator Noah Hawley nearly brought an entirely new crew to Star Trek, with a story reportedly involving a virus devastating large parts of the known universe. According to GamesRadar+, Hawley completed the screenplay, and Paramount had begun arranging production in Australia before a change in studio leadership stopped the project. Hawley wanted to bring back the clever problem-solving of The Wrath of Khan, where Kirk had to out think his enemy rather than just overpower him. A deadly virus could have forced Starfleet officers to make difficult decisions about protecting entire planets, particularly if they couldn't save everyone. Watching Starfleet try to contain a threat that couldn't be stopped with phasers or torpedoes would have been a refreshing change. There's still a chance Hawley could revisit the story, too. In December 2025, he revealed that he'd discussed the project again with Paramount chief David Ellison (via DarkHorizons). 4 Star Trek 4 (with George Kirk) Chris Hemsworth's George Kirk sacrificed himself aboard the USS Kelvin just as his son was born in 2009's Star Trek. Writers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay planned to reunite them in the fourth film through a transporter malfunction (via Esquire). Reported by SuperHeroHype, The Enterprise crew would have discovered that George's transporter pattern had survived in the wreckage, making it possible to bring him back decades after his death. Because he hadn't aged, George would be about the same age as the son he'd never met. James grew up knowing his father only through stories, so finally meeting George would have been a huge moment for both of them. George would be getting to know a son who was already a Starfleet captain, while James could finally ask the questions he'd spent his whole life wondering about. 3 Star Trek: Planet of the Titans Star Trek: Planet of the Titans nearly gave the Enterprise crew a surprising role in humanity's history. In one version of the proposed film, Kirk would disappear while investigating a mysterious planet, leaving Spock to command the Enterprise. According to Reactor, the crew would eventually travel through a black hole and find themselves above prehistoric Earth. After teaching early humans how to make fire, they'd realize they were the legendary Titans they'd been searching for. It would've been cool to watch Kirk and Spock discover that their actions had changed Earth's history thousands of years before Starfleet existed. Ralph McQuarrie's redesigned Enterprise was another reason to wish this movie had happened (via ForgottenTrek). With its massive triangular hull, the ship looked so different from the original that seeing it fly across the screen would've been exciting on its own. 2 Brent Spiner's Justice League of Star Trek MovieStillsDB Brent Spiner and Star Trek: Nemesis screenwriter John Logan wanted to bring nearly every generation of Star Trek together for one massive crossover. Their proposed sequel would have sent Picard traveling through time to rescue Data before his sacrifice in Nemesis (via Sci-Fi Heaven). He would also have recruited Kirk, Spock, and Captain Archer to confront villains from Khan to Shinzon. Imagine Picard trying to lead a team that included Kirk, who's never been all that good at following someone else's orders. Seeing Data reunited with his friends would've been wonderful, too. But ultimately, Paramount rejected the pitch. In October 2026, Spiner confirmed that he and Logan had met with executives, but the studio considered their ambitious crossover too expensive (via R/Film). 1 Quentin Tarantino's R-Rated Star Trek Quentin Tarantino nearly made an R-rated Star Trek movie inspired by the original series episode "A Piece of the Action," where Kirk and Spock visit a planet modeled after 1920s Chicago gangsters. Screenwriter Mark L. Smith developed a script featuring Kirk, time travel, and plenty of gangster dialogue (via R/Film). He is noted as having spent evenings watching old mob movies with Tarantino to help develop the story. Kirk already had enough trouble keeping a straight face while pretending to be a gangster in the original episode, and it's fun to consider what Tarantino could have done with that setup. His sharp dialogue and unpredictable characters might have made this the strangest adventure Kirk and Spock ever faced. Unfortunately, as reported by TheGuardian, Tarantino eventually stepped away, leaving fans to wonder what his R-rated Star Trek movie could have been. TV Show(s) Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Short Treks, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Video Game(s) Star Trek Online, Star Trek: Resurgence, Star Trek: Bridge Crew First Film Star Trek: The Motion Picture First TV Show Star Trek: The Original Series Cast William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Deforest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Wil Wheaton, Avery Brooks, Nana Visitor, Rene Auberjonois, Alexander Siddig, Cirroc Lofton, Armin Shimerman, Colm Meaney, Terry Farrell, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Jeri Ryan, Robert Duncan McNeill, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Garrett Wang, Jolene Blalock, Connor Trinneer, Dominic Keating, Scott Bakula, Linda Park, John Billingsley, Anthony Montgomery, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho, Chris Hemsworth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sonequa Martin-Green, Mary Wiseman, Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Wilson Cruz, Oyin Oladejo, Emily Coutts, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn, Michelle Yeoh Created by Gene Roddenberry