A New 'Star Trek' Movie Is Coming From 'Star Trek: Discovery' Writer Kalinda Vazquez

Star Trek may be powering up its film franchise once again with the help of a Star Trek: Discovery writer. Discovery writer Kalinda Vazquez, who is actually named after a character from a Star Trek: The Original Series episode, is writing a screenplay for a new Star Trek movie for Paramount Pictures and J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot. But whether that movie will reunite the cast of Abrams' Star Trek films, expand the Discovery franchise, or be an entirely new story altogether is up in the air.

Deadline reports that Star Trek: Discovery writer Kalinda Vazquez will be writing the screenplay to a new Star Trek film for Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot under "a blind deal for an original movie that she hatched" which will see her expand her role in the franchise.

Details are otherwise very scant — it's unclear if Abrams will return to the helm after directing Star Trek and Star Trek: Into Darkness, or if another director will take the role like with the 2016 Justin Lin-directed Star Trek Beyond. But based on the statement that this is "an original movie" conceived by Vazquez, it seems unlikely the film will take place in the Kelvin timeline, in which the Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto-led movies have taken place. It also is likely separate from the other Star Trek films in development from Quentin Tarantino and Noah Hawley, though it's unclear whether they will be affected by Vazquez's project (or, indeed, if they're still happening at all).

But does that mean this new Star Trek movie will be a feature spin-off for Star Trek: Discovery? That's less certain. The Star Trek franchise is alive and well on the newly rebranded Paramount+, where shows Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and even more to come are expanding the universe (and its various alternate universes). It's a big sandbox that Vazquez could play in, but perhaps her aim is to create a new, separate piece of Trek storytelling.

But Vazquez appears to uniquely suited to helming a new Star Trek movie. Aside from being named after a Star Trek: The Original Series character (specifically, Kalinda from the episode "By Any Other Name"), Vazquez has cut her teeth on genre shows like Fear the Walking Dead, Once Upon a Time, Runaways, Nikita, Prison Break, and more, before making her way to the writing staff of Star Trek: Discovery.  She's also recently worked with George R.R. Martin on an adaptation of the Roger Zelazny novel Roadmarks and adapted Brian K. Vaughan's Barrier for Legendary Television.