If you have a Paramount+ subscription , then the TV gates of Star Trek have been opened back up to you since 2017, with shows like Discovery , Picard , Strange New Worlds , Lower Decks and Prodigy (which is now on Netflix) breathing new life into this corner of the franchise. Film-wise though, it’s been eight years since the release of Star Trek Beyond , and development remains stalled on Star Trek 4 . Although Simon Pegg , who plays the Kelvin Timeline’s Scotty, is still game to return for this Star Trek sequel, he did acknowledge that it will be “forever tainted” for a specific, yet understandable reason.
On June 19, 2016, a month before the wide release of Star Trek Beyond , Anton Yelchin , who played Pavel Chekov in these movies, tragically died at the age of 27 . So regardless of whether Chekov is recast or it’s decided to retire the character, Pegg explained to Katee Sackhoff on The Sackhoff Show that it’ll be sad for him and the other leading actors to tackle Star Trek 4 without their late co-star, though that wouldn’t stop Pegg from agreeing to come back. As he explained: I’d love to do more.
Obviously it’s been forever tainted because we lost Anton, and that was a really hard thing for everyone involved, and for the real world, let alone anything else. If we do come back, if there is another opportunity to come back, then I’d love to. Because as we were saying earlier on, it’s a group of guys that I dearly, dearly love and don’t get to see ver.