This week will mark the primary 100 days since David Ellison and his Skydance crew took over Paramount. For the final three months what Paramount is as much as has been a scorching matter in Hollywood, Wall Road, and Washington DC, as the brand new company overlords are making strikes impacting the inventive neighborhood, media traders, and politicians. Final week’s large Selection cowl story which revealed the brand new Paramount was on the lookout for a “contemporary” concept for the following Star Trek film was in anticipation of this 100 day level.
Late on Monday, the brand new management crew had an opportunity to talk about the way forward for the corporate of their first quarterly investor name since taking up. Whereas Star Trek was not talked about particularly, a few of what was introduced yesterday in a letter to traders and within the name with Wall Road analysts offered insights into company strikes that may presumably find yourself together with Star Trek as properly.
A lot of yesterday was crammed with company jargon and imprecise feedback, particularly about any potential merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. However the letter to traders made the case that the corporate, which has struggled over the previous decade, is now in the best palms:
Our purpose in bringing collectively Paramount and Skydance was to honor an organization with over a century of storied historical past and profound cultural affect, whereas remodeling it for the long run via investments in distinctive storytelling, modern expertise, and strategic development alternatives that may form the following period of leisure. Immediately, we’re assured we’re on the best path – taking the required steps to construct a stronger, extra enduring firm for the long run.
All this speak has impressed Wall Road; many media inventory analysists adopted up yesterday’s name with suggestions to purchase or proceed to carry shares of PSKY, which has already jumped over 40% for the reason that takeover. However let’s take a better take a look at some specifics that might affect Trek:
Extra spending (for extra creativity)
This deal with development was emphasised all through the decision and the investor doc. And regardless that they’re making cost-cutting strikes that embrace important layoffs, the corporate can be committing to important extra spending past what now we have already seen, with some large offers already made within the first 100 days. The investor letter spells out the imaginative and prescient for a deal with creativity:
At Paramount, we’re – and all the time might be – a inventive firm. Storytelling stays the center and soul of every part we do. Our mission is to entertain audiences around the globe with the very best movies, tv sequence, sports activities, information, and video games, and we’re dedicated to persevering with to take a position boldly on this core power.
They really bought particular on this extra spending, committing the corporate to “make incremental programming investments in extra of $1.5 billion throughout each theatrical and direct-to-consumer platforms,” in line with CEO and Chairman David Ellison, including “These investments are designed to broaden our pipeline of premium movies, tv, sports activities, information, and gaming content material for world audiences.”
Skydance’s David Ellison on the premiere of Star Trek Past in 2016
Extra motion pictures
Paramount Photos has underperformed on their targets for 2025, however the brand new crew sees this as a chance to “recalibrate” with a view to make “the required enhancements to our future slate.” They usually bought particular with “We plan to develop our theatrical output to not less than 15 movies yearly starting in 2026.” That is up from round 10 or 11 movies lately.
Trek followers will do not forget that 2026 was supposed to incorporate the discharge of a Star Trek function movie, particularly the “origin” movie directed by Toby Haynes. Clearly that’s not going to occur. It’s potential that, identical to a possible Star Trek 4, the origin film has additionally been shelved to make room for the “contemporary” tackle Star Trek the studio is reportedly looking for.
Firstly of their first 100 days, the Paramount execs did speak about how getting Star Trek again on the massive display screen was “completely a precedence,” and with the spending for an expanded movie slate and the said deal with franchises, it does really feel like Star Trek might lastly emerge from the event hell it has been locked. Traditionally the movie franchise has been an essential a part of Paramount, with 13 theatrical releases between 1979 and 2013.
From the UK premiere of Star Trek Past in 2016 (Getty)
Extra streaming
In keeping with Ellison, streaming for Paramount is the corporate’s “high precedence.” The purpose is to develop past the present 72 million subscribers to tackle the massive boys of Netflix and Disney, and the important thing to this subscriber development and loyalty is “distinctive storytelling,” with a said dedication to “rising our funding in high quality, unique programming throughout our streaming platforms.”
Earlier than the takeover, the spend on streaming had been in the reduction of throughout the board for Paramount+, which clearly impacted Star Trek. As of now there are two lively exhibits, with one of many two, Unusual New Worlds, presently filming its fifth and closing season. This leaves Starfleet Academy as the one Star Trek present with a possible future. Ideally, Paramount will take this second to evaluate the worth of the franchise that helped launched the streaming service again when it was known as CBS All Entry.
Since that launch, the expansion of the service has been pushed by sports activities, a variety of exhibits from producer Taylor Sheridan, and extra just lately, the return of South Park. All of these might be large components of the expansion in coming years (though Sheridan is exiting for NBC Common in 2029). However with Star Trek a “precedence” for the corporate and the plan for a holistic view throughout TV and movie, we must always in all probability anticipate extra Trek to come back, and phrase on the road is that the brand new head of scripted streaming is a Star Trek fan. We do know there isn’t a scarcity of Star Trek pitches floating round, however they’re possible additionally on the lookout for a few of these “contemporary” concepts on the TV aspect as properly.
Maybe associated, the investor report additionally famous the corporate anticipates “important growth of our whole tv studio output over the approaching years, encompassing titles to be distributed each on our personal platforms and licensed to 3rd events.” It’s solely potential that Paramount and CBS Studios (who produce Trek TV) might selected to work with third events on future Star Trek sequence. Over the past decade we noticed a few of this, like Netflix partnering on Discovery for worldwide releases and Amazon Prime Video partnering on Picard and Decrease Decks.
Holly Hunter in season 1, episode 1 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy streaming on Paramount+. Photograph Credit score: Brooke Palmer/Paramount+
There was additionally some speak of logistics in the case of how the service might be spreading the discharge of originals, and “shifting away from the historic focus across the sports activities season and year-end surge, which has beforehand led to uneven engagement.” Loads of speak yesterday was additionally spent on how new expertise might be used to enhance each the again finish and consumer expertise on Paramount+, together with extra integration with the Pluto TV free (ad-supported) streaming service, though there isn’t a indication but that Paramount+ and Pluto TV will fully merge collectively on the entrance finish for customers. Oh, and to assist pay all this spending on content material and tech, the corporate introduced plans to extend the worth of Paramount+ in 2026.
Extra ready
So there you’ve it, plenty of speak of development and spending. Star Trek will presumably be a part of all that, hopefully each on movie and TV. However for now, there isn’t something particular in the case of what Paramount plans to do with the franchise. Subsequent yr, Star Trek turns 60. The yr kicks off with a Star Trek float on the Rose Parade; let’s hope that’s just the start of an enormous yr for the ultimate frontier.
Render for the Rose Parade 2026 float
