10 Announced Movie Sequels Happening WAY Too Late

Believe it or not, it's been a whole eight years since the third entry into J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot franchise, Star Trek Beyond, was released.

Simple though it should've been for Paramount to get a fourth movie into production, Star Trek 4 has hit stumbling block after stumbling block over the last near-decade.

For starters, Beyond underperformed at the box office, leaving Paramount anxious about the fourth movie's budget, especially with the ensemble cast presumably expecting pay bumps in order to return.

Numerous writers and filmmakers have taken a crack at Star Trek 4 over the years, even while Paramount didn't yet have Chris Pine and the rest of the cast on board to appear.

This past March, it was reaffirmed that the film was in development and intended to be the final chapter of the reboot franchise, but given that it likely won't end up releasing until more than a decade after Beyond, it rather feels like the time window has passed.

Even ignoring the overlong gap between Trek movies, though, moviegoing habits are very different now compared to 2016, and it's easy to picture Trek 4 coming and going without making much of a dent.

Ideally, Trek 4 should've been released around 2019, but in taking so long to get the relevant pieces in place, Paramount have probably missed their chance to wrap up the franchise while the mainstream still cares about it.