Star Trek: Is There A Place For The Kelvin Timeline Anymore?

As it stands, Star Trek 4 is sitting in development hell. There are issues with budgets and salaries that need to be addressed, along with changing directors depending on the day.

However the question stands, is there a place for Star Trek 4 anymore, in this time of Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks and the upcoming Star Trek: Prodigy?

With the return of the Prime universe, Star Trek has officially gone back to its roots. While this has also drawn its fair share of controversy, it does mean that the main bulk of the franchise is now in the one bubble, with the Kelvin films existing outside of that.

Despite that, the Kelvin films have been big earners. With the ever-increasing cost of production, in a world that is experiencing more and more delays due to lock-down, getting another Kelvin film out there could only serve to get more audiences aware of the franchise.

While the inevitable question whether the two timelines will sync up or not will depend on many factors (money) - Star Trek has always been a franchise that has done well on both the small and big screens. While opposing timelines may now be confusing, thanks to the success of the small screen version, abandoning one aspect should not be given much clout.

It lies in the hands of the lawyers and the studios at this point, but based on the movies and their impact to this point - Star Trek 4 should be a must-go-forward deal, sooner rather than later.