Robert Orci out as Director of Star Trek 3: The Reboot Series

As a long time Star Trek fan, I was never enamored of the reboots done by JJ Abrams and his team. They’re not complete disasters, though Into Darkness is close to being as bad as The Final Frontier. Each film had moments, but the whole alternate universe Trek still bothers me (I admit I like franchises that continue to keep continuity in play).

But while both Abrams films made money, they were never huge successes, as in the billions that the studios like to crow about. And it seems pretty obvious that all the behind-the-scene shenanigans going on with the third film in the new series indicates that to get a good film out by 2016 –Star Trek’s 50^th Anniversary- is proving more difficult than it should. 

With Abrams committed to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, finding a replacement director was paramount (no pun intended). When writer Robert Orci –who helped pen the two newest films- was handed the director chair, some fans felt this was a sign that the franchise was going to continue being mediocre at best and at worst, just another reboot of an old TOS episode. 

Now, according to Deadline, Orci is out and the hunt is on for a replacement, though no reason was given for his departure. But, BadassDigest is suggesting that Paramount executives are not pleased with the script, which is said to be about “the Enterprise, the Vulcans and a new alien race competing to get a time travel device. The Vulcans want to go back and stop the destruction of their planet, and the time travel schtick is what would allow Chris Pine and William Shatner to share the screen.” 

It would seem, if this was the plan, this plot would negate the entire first two films in the rebooted series, which just seems stupid (yeah, I found the idea dumb originally, but this now seems to be even dumber idea).

With Orci out as director and with a script that apparently will either be junked or reworked, this puts Paramount in a squeeze to have the film ready for 2016. Deadline is suggesting that Edgar Wright is on the shortlist of possible directors, but that’s not anywhere near official. And while Wright, who left Marvel’s Ant Man over creative differences as well, might be a good choice (and is long-time friends with Scotty actor Simon Pegg) he is known as director who generally appears to not like interference from executives. And Paramount does nothing but interfere once they realized that Star Trek could be broadened beyond the niche group of fans that have loved it for forty-eight years.