ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish will reunite Star Trek, confirms there are two films in development

ViacomCBS

Hot on the heels of last week’s ViacomCBS merger, new CEO Bob Bakish has been reassuring investors about the company’s prospects, and using Star Trek to do it.

A piece in The Hollywood Reporter says that in Bakish’s first public appearance since the merger, he told investors at the UBS Global Technology, Media & Telecommunications Conference on Monday that “the company will unite franchises like Star Trek, bringing together TV shows and films from the series.” The same piece also had Bakish saying there are currently two new Star Trek films in development.

Now, one of the new films we already know about. Before Thanksgiving, Deadline reported that Fargo and Legion’s Noah Hawley was set to direct Star Trek 4 for Paramount Pictures. Also in that report, Deadline said that the long-rumored Quentin Tarantino Star Trek film was being worked on separately with J.J. Abrams, which could be the second film Bakish was referring to.

Perhaps the more interesting thing to note here is that The Hollywood Reporter had Bakish specifically saying that the new, combined ViacomCBS would bring together TV shows and films from the series. Whether he meant an administrative or creative sense, it’s impossible to say without further details. And yet notable that he called out the Star Trek franchise in particular.

Otherwise in the same speech to investors, Bakish focused on the forward prospects of the company, probably in a bid to bolster share prices, which have struggled since the merger was announced. He said, “On a global basis, we will probably be the most important [content] dealer in the world. [...] You should think of ViacomCBS as a growth company, you should think of our path to growth as serving consumers globally.”