An abandoned plan for Star Trek 4 would have brought Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) together with his father, Lieutenant George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth), but while it was a cool idea, it probably would have caused problems for the movie. Writers Patrick McKay and JD Payne, who now serve as showrunners for Amazon Prime Videos Lord of the Rings: the rings of power, unveiled their discarded concept for Star Trek 4, which they developed with director SJ Clarkson. Pitched like a Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade-like father/son team-up, the two Kirks would have joined forces in Star Trek 4′s galactic adventure.
Captain Kirk teaming up with his father George is a new idea not done before in Star Trek. However, had Star Trek 4 was made with this storyline, Chris Hemsworth who did the screen with Chris Pine might have overwhelmed and shifted focus Star Trekthe ensemble cast. Hemsworth is a megawatt movie star best known as Marvel Studios’ Thor. George Kirk would of course need a lot of screen time, along with Captain Kirk, to fully investigate the consequences of the son finding his father alive. This means that the Kirks would have been the main focus of star trek 4, not the ensemble cast. It’s easy to predict that Kirk’s relationships with Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Dr. Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban) would have taken off to give George Kirk proper credibility. Not to mention that this would mean a reduced emphasis on the rest of Star Trek 4‘s main cast in general.
Abrams’ Star Trek Movies Used The Enterprise Cast Better Than Terms of Service
One of JJ Abrams’ most underrated strengths Star Trek trilogy is how well the Starship Enterprise’s ensemble cast is used in each movie. While Kirk and Spock are, of course, the main protagonists, Abrams and Justin Lin, who directed, are Star Trek Beyond, made sure that crews such as Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (John Cho), Chekov (Anton Yelchin), and Scotty (Simon Pegg) played pivotal roles in each film. For example, Uhura’s unparalleled talent in xenolinguistics is always put to use, and Scotty invariably finds a way to save the world with his unparalleled engineering skills. Star Trek onward, in particular, was so well structured that the film introduced Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), a new alien heroic character, and seamlessly integrated her with the Enterprise cast.
JJ Abrams’ Star Trek movies actually made much better use of the entire Enterprise crew than the Star Trek: The Original Series movies, or even the television series, did. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Sulu (George Takei), Scotty (James Doohan), and Chekov (Walter Koenig) are beloved Star Trek legends, but they were mostly relegated to background support and rarely given full stories of their own. Also, their backgrounds were not investigated to the extent that Abrams’ cast was in his Star Trek movies.
Will Chris Hemsworth return to Star Trek as George Kirk?
There is no telling which direction Star Trek 4 will last now, or whether the film will ever escape development hell. It’s not even clear if previous Star Trek 4 director Matt Shakman, who left to direct Marvel’s Fantastic four, was working on bringing Chris Hemsworth back as George Kirk or taking an entirely different creative route. But with each passing year, Chris Hemsworth’s re-imaging George Kirk’s window closes, as the busy actor has plenty of other commitments.
It’s a shame because Captain Kirk meets his father in Star Trek 4 would have been particularly powerful and poignant. After all, it was George’s death that not only helped create the alternate Kelvin timeline, but the loss of his father at birth also inspired Chris Pine’s Kirk to join Starfleet and become a captain. Had the Kirk team up version of Star Trek 4 was made, or if it ever did, we hope the movie would have struck a good balance for George and Jim sharing the screen together without shorting Spock and the rest of the Enterprise cast.
