By Travis Johnson
Deadline is reporting that SJ Clarkson is about to sign on to direct the fourth film in Bad Robot/Paramount’s rebooted Star Trek film series – not to be confused with the proposed Quentin Tarantino-directed film currently being written by The Revenant‘s Mark L. Smith. Clarkson’s film would presumably carry on directly from the underperforming (but, let’s face it, best installment so far) Star Trek Beyond.
Clarkson is no slouch as a director, having recently called the shots on Netflix’s Collateral, starring Carey Mulligan. Her genre bonafides are solid: she directed the pilots to The Defenders and Jessica Jones, along with episodes of Heroes, Life on Mars, Dexter, Vinyl, Dig, and Orange Is the New Black.
If this becomes official, it would make the British Clarkson the first woman to direct a film in the history of the franchise. That’s actually surprising, given not only Star Trek’s history of strong female characters (Uhura, Janeway, et al), bu also the presence of several important female voices behind the scenes, including writers DC Fontana and Melinda M. Snodgrass (Hanelle M. Culpepper and Lee Rose did direct episodes of Discovery last year, to be fair, while the earlier series had their share).
All other considerations aside, expect more Trek announcements – maybe even a title! – in the near future.
