WandaVision director to helm new Star Trek movie

WandaVision director Matt Shakman is set to take the helm of the next Star Trek movie. Hot on the heels of a magical 23 Emmy nominations for the acclaimed Marvel and Disney Plus series, veteran TV director (and former child actor) Shakman is reported to have chosen Trek as only his second big-screen outing.

Shakman was one of the people behind WandaVision, the first MCU series to stream on Disney Plus, which paved the way for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and for Loki, which just confirmed a second season.

Now, I know what you're thinking: which Star Trek movie are we talking about? In recent years there have been more rumored Trek projects than toy phasers at a cosplay convention. JJ Abrams' 2009 big-screen reboot of the spacefaring saga led to two sequels, but the franchise looked uncertain after 2016's Star Trek Beyond. Trek continued on the small screen with Discovery, Lower Decks and Picard on streaming service Paramount Plus (formerly CBS All Access), while Noah Hawley and Quentin Tarantino had a go at writing a new movie.

Even if this version makes it to warp speed, it's unclear whether Starfleet uniforms will once again be handed out to Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban and the rest of the reboot cast.

Shakman previously directed The Great, Succession, The Boys, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Mad Men, Fargo and Game of Thrones. Deadline reports the Trek script will be written by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, who co-wrote Captain Marvel and the 2018 Tomb Raider. Between them, the two writers are reported to be working on Spider-man spin-off Silver Sable, a movie version of the Andy Weir novel Artemis and a Short Circuit reboot. The pair have also been linked with films based on Hasbro toys Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Visionaries and MASK, but those will probably stay in the 1980s where they belong.