Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Paramount has announced that it is developing a fourth Star Trek film with the studio wanting to bring back stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana and more.
J.J. Abrams, who directed the 2009 Star Trek film that first introduced Pine as James T. Kirk, Quinto as Spock and Saldana as Lieutenant Uhura, made the announcement Tuesday during the Paramount Investors Day Presentation.
"We are thrilled to say that we are hard at work on a new Star Trek film that will be shooting by the end of the year that will be featuring our original cast and some new characters that I think are going to be really fun and exciting and help take Star Trek into areas that you've just never seen before," Abrams said at the event.
"We're thrilled about this film, we have a bunch of other stories that we're talking about that we think will be really exciting, so can't wait for you to see what we're cooking up But until then, live long and prosper," he continued.
Paramount is set to enter negotiations for the new film with Pine, Quinto, Saldana and their co-stars Karl Urban (Dr. Bones McCoy), John Cho (Sulu) and Simon Pegg (Scotty).
The cast also starred in 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness from Abrams and 2016's Star Trek Beyond from director Justin Lin.
The plot of the new film is being kept under wraps. Matt Shakman (WandaVision) is directing with Josh Friedman and Cameron Squires writing, based off a draft by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet.
Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino was previously working on a new Star Trek film with The Revenant writer Mark L. Smith that never materialized.