{"id":551558,"date":"2026-03-29T02:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T02:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/551558\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T02:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T02:42:07","slug":"project-hail-mary-author-andy-weir-takes-a-shot-at-star-trek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/551558\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Project Hail Mary’ Author Andy Weir Takes a Shot at ‘Star Trek’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe author of Project Hail Mary<\/a> is firing a photon torpedo at Paramount<\/a>+\u2019s Star Trek<\/a> efforts.<\/p>\n

\n\tBestselling writer Andy Weir<\/a> criticized modern Trek shows while on the Critical Drinker podcast<\/a> last week, and even revealed he pitched a Trek show that was shot down by Paramount.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe topic began with the podcast\u2019s host, Will Jordan, saying how refreshing the box office<\/a> hit Project Hail Mary has been, especially for audiences who grew up on Star Trek and now suffer from \u201ca lack of\u201d such sci-fi efforts nowadays.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYeah, I saw a \u2026 I forgot who it was \u2014 I wish I could remember who it was who said it, some analyst \u2014 he said something like: \u2018All modern science fiction TV shows and movies have been heavily influenced by the original Star Trek \u2014 except for the current batch of Star Trek shows,’\u201d Weir said.<\/p>\n

\n\tMarsden replied, \u201cYes!\u201d and they both laughed.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt first, Weir left that comment open to interpretation, but then added, \u201cI\u2019m Gen X, so my\u00a0sci-fi was like original series Star Trek reruns and Lost in Space reruns. And there\u00a0wasn\u2019t really much in the way of [new] sci-fi\u00a0that was airing \u2014 where people are off in space doing cool things \u2014 until we got to [Star Trek: The Next Generation].\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLater, Marsden brought up the divisive<\/a> Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which Paramount+<\/a> recently confirmed will end after its already-shot second season. <\/p>\n

\n\t \u201cI think we can probably safely never talk about it again,\u201d Marsden quipped. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s gone baby!\u201d Weir cheerfully agreed. \u201cIt\u2019s all gone.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tMarsden said his advice to Paramount is to de-canonize everything Star Trek from Enterprise onward.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOkay, you\u2019re a little more severe than I am,\u201d Weir said. \u201cI\u2019ll give you my opinion and I\u2019m just a consumer. I like Strange New Worlds. I think it\u2019s pretty good. I didn\u2019t hate Enterprise. I thought it was kind of weird. Lower Decks I thought was entertaining and fun. All the others, they can go. And here\u2019s another thing: I pitched a Star Trek show to Paramount and I was in Zoom with the showrunners with all the shows and spent a lot of time talking to [executive producer Alex Kurtzman]. I don\u2019t like a lot of the new Trek. He, as a person, is a really nice guy. But at the same time, those shows are shit. He is a nice guy. But they didn\u2019t accept my pitch so, you know, fuck \u2019em.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Paramount for comment. <\/p>\n

\n\tParamount+\u2019s Star Trek efforts are seemingly taking a break in Spacedock. For the first time in many years, there are no current Trek projects in production, though there are two more years of Strange New Worlds left and another season of Starfleet Academy left to air.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is also speculation surrounding Alex Kurtzman\u2019s future with the franchise, who has lead Paramount\u2019s Star Trek TV revival. His deal with CBS Studios<\/a> goes through the end of 2026; Paramount+ is currently in talks with Kurtzman and his Secret Hideout production company about renewing or extending his deal. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhen news of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy\u2019s cancellation broke, Kurtzman, alongside EPs Noga Landau and Gaia Violo, released an open letter that addressed some of the criticism surrounding the show. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe letter reads, \u201cWhether you\u2019re working on\u00a0Star Trek\u00a0or part of the marvel that is\u00a0Star Trek\u00a0fandom \u2014 its very heart, soul, and conscience \u2014 the joy comes from adventuring across boundaries of time, space, and the humanly possible in service to [Gene] Roddenberry\u2019s transformative vision of the future. That incomparable vision was fueled by an inexhaustible optimism.\u00a0Star Trek\u00a0places its bet on the best in human nature. It dares to imagine a society of \u2018infinite diversity in infinite combinations,\u2019 free of war, hate, poverty, disease, and repression, and dedicated to the spirit of scientific inquiry and respect for all life, whether carbon or silicon-based, green-skinned or blue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBut make no mistake: Gene Roddenberry wasn\u2019t some starry-eyed dreamer. He was a decorated Army bomber pilot in the Pacific Theater. He had seen first-hand the grim consequences of the worst of human nature. And his vision of the future wasn\u2019t just a promise of hope. It was also a warning. In a fraught, frightening time of intolerance and violence,\u00a0Star Trek\u00a0said:\u00a0Look! We made it! But\u00a0just barely.\u00a0First, we had to put all those ancient scourges behind us.\u00a0It said that what makes us glorious as a species, and gives us hope for the future and the galaxy is inextricably linked to what makes us dangerous to each other, to this one world we presently inhabit, and to ourselves.\u00a0That dual message \u2014 of hope and of warning \u2014 isn\u2019t just a pretty dream but a call to action, to think about who we are in a different way,\u201d the letter continued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The author of Project Hail Mary is firing a photon torpedo at Paramount+\u2019s Star Trek efforts. Bestselling writer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[241825,88,4208,155909,11878],"class_list":{"0":"post-551558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-andy-weir","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-paramount","11":"tag-project-hail-mary","12":"tag-star-trek"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}