Star Trek: 10 Behind The Scenes Decisions We Can't Forgive
9. Waiting 4 Years Between Movies
Star Trek Into Darkness has its flaws and nobody really likes Spock screaming "Khan" or the necrotic tribble with Benedict Cumberbatch's super blood in it. But wouldn't the world be a better place if Star Trek Into Darkness was a small dip in quality in an ongoing film franchise instead of the regrettable middle chapter of an accidental trilogy?
After the unmitigated success of JJ Abrams' first Kelvin Timeline outing in 2009, Paramount immediately announced a sequel and writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci began work on a followup script a month after Star Trek hit theaters. A year later the film was given a release date of June 29, 2012 and then it was delayed again and again for one reason or another, until Star Trek Into Darkness was finally released on May 17, 2013... four years after Star Trek.
In those four years the Hollywood landscape had changed and that summer 2009, with Star Trek surrounded by Wolverine and Robert Langdon, started look quaint next to Into Darkness' competition from Superman and Iron Man. While Into Darkness nevertheless succeeded at the box office, the returns weren't quite as unmitigatedly successful as the first film's returns.
The gap between Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness undeniably killed the momentum and goodwill garnered by that first film. With the Marvel Cinematic Universe making inroads in the blockbuster landscape and the rise of nostalgia-bait movies, audience attention span was stretched to the limit. Star Trek was essentially squeezed out of the market in the four years between films, to say nothing of the additional three it took to get Star Trek Beyond into multiplexes.
If Paramount had kept the train on the tracks and released these films every two or three years like most franchises, summer 2020 could've seen Star Trek 5 or even 6, rather than vague threats of another reboot. Khaaan.