New Star Trek Movie Reportedly In Development From Andor Director Toby Haynes

While television is the historical home of "Star Trek," Gene Roddenberry's science fiction brainchild has proven an excellent fit for the movies as well throughout its decades at the pop culture forefront. Thus, it's a welcome bit of news that a new "Star Trek" film is reportedly on its way to cinemas, as revealed by Deadline on January 10.

The new "Star Trek" film that is in the works is helmed by Toby Haynes of "Andor" fame and penned by Seth Grahame-Smith, who is best known for writing "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" and contributing to the "LEGO Batman Movie" script. Additionally, J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions will handle producing duties. At the time of this writing, plot details are under lock and key, though this feature is reportedly a prequel to 2009's "Star Trek," which Abrams directed with a script written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.

Given the talent behind it, it's safe to say that this new "Star Trek" origin story is in good hands. At the same time, all this talk of a new film begs the question — where does this leave "Star Trek 4"?

Following "Star Trek" in 2009, J.J. Abrams' film spawned two sequels in the new Kelvin timeline –  this is an alternate reality created by the destruction of the U.S.S. Kelvin that's different from the Prime universe. First came "Star Trek Into Darkness" in 2013, then "Star Trek Beyond" in 2016, and ever since, word of a fourth "Star Trek" feature has floated around the Internet. Now, almost a decade after the release of "Beyond," production on the sequel remains slow going, with few positive updates to keep fans happy.

Thankfully, according to Deadline, fans don't have to worry about Toby Haynes' film getting in the way of "Star Trek 4." Both features are distinct from one another and in active development at the same time, so fans of the Kelvin timeline can look forward to two new installments in the coming years. One can only hope that "Star Trek 4" can make some steady progress soon and that Haynes' prequel feature won't suffer the same fate of being trapped in development limbo for years on end.

Toby Haynes' "Star Trek" feature currently lacks a release date.