‘Star Trek 4’ – New Details On Noah Hawley’s Upcoming Film

Legion creator, Noah Hawley may never get to make his proposed Doctor Doom film for the MCU, but the director is about to leave a major mark on the Star Trek franchise. Hawley was brought in by JJ Abrams and Bad Robot after the original plan for a 4th film fell through due to staffing issues (Both Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pine bailed). Now that he’s got control, one thing is for sure, he is not just going to try and keep making the same formula work again. During the FX press day for the TCA, Collider’s Christina Radish asked him about his take for the new film and this is what he said:

When I think about my evolution, as a filmmaker, I really came into my own through Fargo. It was in figuring out, how do you make a Coen Brothers movie? I had to figure out, what is the nature of suspense, what is the nature of comedy, in their work, what is the economy of their camera moves, etc. And then, Legion for me was then an experimental film, in comparison. The function of cinema is to create feelings in an audience, and so, what if I do this, and what if I do that? What if I detach the image from information? What if I create a surrealism, more horror, or any of these other elements? And on some level, Lucy [in the Sky] was also an experiment, in telling this magic realism astronaut story. And so, I came out of that going, “All right, I feel like this experimental phase that I’ve gone through, I really learned a lot from it. I’m excited to get back to Fargo, and tell as linear a narrative as we ever tell, and something that’s very grounded and real. And I was excited to look around, if I was gonna make another movie, and I wanted to do something with more scale to it.

When I looked at all of the franchises, I kept coming back to Star Trek as something that, ultimately, at the end of the day that is, at its heart, about being human, about diversity and exploration and outsmarting your opponent, as opposed to destroying your opponent through your physical might. It’s William Shatner putting on his reading glasses and lowering the shields. That’s Star Trek to me. He’s clever. He’s cleverer than the other guy. But it’s also the conceptual science fiction that was always so great in Next Generation, or even the original. Action, in and of itself, isn’t that interesting to me, unless it’s story. I love The Raid. The guy is stuck in this building and has got to fight his way out, and it’s all story. But just to have action for action’s sake isn’t that interesting. So, I have my own take and my own things that I want to do with it. Having done this 40-hour homage to the Coens, and having done a Marvel series, I always approach this material understanding that people are really invested in these stories, and I treat the material with real respect, but I’m going to tell my own story now. I always feel, as a fan, if there’s something that I love and somebody tells me new stories, I get excited. I’m excited there’s going to be another Matrix movie. I don’t need it to be the old Matrix movie. I’m excited to see characters used in new ways, or new characters, or whatever it is.

They went on to discuss if the cast would remain the same, Hawley made it pretty clear that he has other ideas in mind.

It’s still early days. For me, it’s definitely an a new direction, but it’s still early, in terms of who exactly would be in it or what the characters would be. I don’t think of it as Star Trek 4, to be reductive. This is a new beginning.