Patrick Stewart's "Avengers: Endgame" Star Trek Movie Would Have Beaten Marvel at Its Own Game

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2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis would be the last time we saw Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc until Paramount+ brought us the Star Trek: Picard premiere in 2020. However, there was a fifth and final movie starring the Next Generation crew that was intended to be made after Nemesis​​​​​.

Sadly, the fact that Nemesis underperformed at the box office was just one reason why Paramount pulled the plug on another big-screen outing for Captain Picard and company. Over the years, the cast and crew have revealed key elements of what the unmade Star Trek movie would have been about.

The more I learn about it, the more desperately unhappy I become that it never saw the light of day. When the project was being put together, the Marvel movie franchise was not as we know it today. It relied largely on standalone efforts that didn’t (and often legally couldn’t) rely on high-profile crossovers.

The MCU has transformed cinema since. Now, if a Marvel movie doesn’t have at least one team-up between superheroes, it’s tricky to create much of a stir. This is something that has permeated other huge franchises as well. Crossovers are now an expectation rather than a bonus. I’d say it’s unfortunate, but efforts like 2019’s Avengers: Endgame prove it can all be worth it. Well over a decade earlier, Star Trek​​​​​​’s unmade Nemesis follow-up could have been the one to establish this exciting-but-divisive cinematic blueprint.

Patrick Stewart’s Fifth Star Trek Movie Would Have Been a Sci-Fi Event for the Ages

The mixed reviews and poor box office performance of Star Trek: Nemesis were what ultimately led to Paramount’s decision that the TNG era had overstayed its welcome. That said, work had begun on another movie with the same cast before this. In short, it would have been a crossover unlike anything Star Trek had ever seen.

The franchise had already blended the casts of various Star Trek series via cameos in each other’s projects. One of the biggest examples was the team-up between Kirk (William Shatner) and Picard in 1994’s Star Trek: Generations. Similarly, Original Series figures like Spock (Leonard Nimoy) had previously appeared in The Next Generation. There are a handful of similar instances as well.

All of these fun moments in Star Trek history would have been put to shame by what the franchise was trying to do on the big screen after Nemesis​​​​​, though. It would have been roughly equivalent to what Marvel did with Endgame years down the line. The plan was for past villains like Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán) and Shinzon (Tom Hardy) to team up via time travel and other sci-fi means.

This would have prompted Picard to form his own supergroup of Starfleet officers from the past. This wouldn’t have just resulted in another story with Kirk and Picard on the screen at the same time. There would also have been a role for Spock, and even the face of the TV branch of the franchise at that time, Scott Bakula’s Captain Jonathan Archer. It’s unclear if figures from Voyager and Deep Space Nine would have been involved, but I like to think they would have been.

Why Else Another ‘TNG’ Star Trek Movie Never Happened

Paramount Pictures

As mentioned above, Star Trek: Nemesis‘ various failures acted as the final nail in the coffin for TNG‘s big-screen run. None of its predecessors had been particularly high-earners, though. Generations and 1996’s First Contact only made modest net profits of around $15 million each, and the third movie, 1998’s Insurrection, lost money just like Nemesis did.

The fact that Star Trek was still making movies at all helped the franchise maintain its hard-earned reputation, even if the saga was falling out of favor by the early 2000s. The massive crossover movie that never happened could have given Star Trek a boost, but it would likely have been a short-term fix. Plus, the budget would likely have needed to break all sorts of franchise records to get the project off the ground.

Not only would it have been filled with huge Star Trek actors, but the script had been written by John Logan, who had just been nominated for an Oscar for 2000’s Gladiator. The biggest budget of all four TNG movies was given to Insurrection. It was roughly $70 million, which, when adjusted for inflation, would be around $145 million today.

That would likely not have been enough to make the movie Logan and company had in mind, and even if it had been, I doubt Paramount would have risked it. Brent Spiner, who plays Data and was a leading force behind developing the idea behind Logan’s script, has since confirmed that finances were indeed one of the major hurdles. He stated (Via SlashFilm), “The problem with [the idea], more than anything, is cost – how do you pay for that?”

It’s For the Best That This Star Trek Movie Never Happened

Paramount Pictures

The Star Trek fan in me is still furious that this film never saw the light of day. However, the more rational part of my brain is also grateful that the movie never happened. I think it would have poisoned the franchise so that it always felt like future projects needed to also rely on big crossovers to feel rewarding; a little like how the MCU can feel at times.

As it stands, Star Trek crossovers remain a rarity, and I love that. It helps moments like the coming together of Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks in 2023 feel extra special. Furthermore, the fifth TNG movie was also intended to bid farewell to Stewart and the rest of the Next Generation cast. If it had been made, I doubt Star Trek: Picard would also have been greenlit in 2020.

I know the show wasn’t perfect, but Season 3 really brought it home with a much-needed reunion for the former crew of the Enterprise-D (and E). It was also much longer and more substantial than a movie would have been. Besides, it’s not like landmark events like this don’t happen in Star Trek media. While not canon, the comics do it all the time, and it’s usually a rewarding ride. Star Trek didn’t need to try and force it back in the 2000s when it was something that could have crashed and burned.

Cast

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Deforest Kelley, Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, Scott Bakula, Sonequa Martin-Green, Anson Mount, Jeri Ryan, Holly Hunter

Latest Film

Star Trek Beyond