‘Wrath of Khan’ Director Nicholas Meyer Working on Secret ‘Star Trek’ Trilogy

Arguably the greatest science fiction film ever made, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan has been aped, copied, stolen from, and flat out ripped off for the last thirty-five years, and it's thanks in no small part to the film's writer and director Nicholas Meyer. Meyer was a Star Trek novice when he landed the job and while watching the original series again, he was intrigued by the first season episode "Space Seed," pitching his film as a follow-up to that episode.

It obviously paid off, proving that you don't need to hire fanboys of the source material to make these movies creatively successful. Meyer then dove into other projects, but returned throughout the franchise's history, co-writing Star Trek IV and returning to the director's chair for Star Trek VI. He was also hired to help shepherd what would become Star Trek: Discovery into existence, retaining a consulting producer credit on the CBS All Access series.

But apparently that last bit was more of a formality to bring Meyer back into the Star Trek fold. According to Trek Core, Meyer made some intriguing comments in answer to an audience question at a "Public Discussion on Shakespeare and Star Trek" at UC Irvine...

AUDIENCE QUESTION: A while back there were reports that you might be working on a ‘Star Trek’ miniseries, is there any truth to that, if you’re allowed to say anything about that?

MEYER: No, I can say something. I was hired to write a stand-alone ‘Star Trek’-related trilogy, [details of which] I can’t discuss or I’d have to kill you. [Laughs] I was writing it for CBS [All] Access… but at the moment CBS is at a war with Paramount/Viacom [about merging].

They’re in a power struggle which turned really nasty this past week when CBS decided to sue Viacom. So I don’t think my project is going anywhere in a hurry, because everything is on hold while they sort out this merger business. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

God damned CBS is going to find a way, come hell or high water, to make me pay for that CBS All Access service. Jerkstore. Needless to say, this is great news for fans of the franchise. Honestly, with all the amazing sounding projects in development right now, it's a great time to be a Trekker. Or a Trekkie. Basically, it's a great time to be a fat guy.

Also, if you get a chance, read Nicholas Meyer's book "The View From the Bridge" about his involvement with Star Trek and various Hollywood projects he worked on during those years. It's a great read, and you can almost always find it in a Dollar Tree, sadly enough.