Chris Hemsworth is one of the most in-demand actors of the moment. Between starring in the ever-expanding MCU as Thor — a franchise for which he has recently extended his contract, according to Giant Freakin Robot — and a handful of upcoming exciting movies, like Extraction 2 and Furiosa (the prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road), it’s no surprise that Hemsworth’s schedule is one of the busiest of any actor in Hollywood right now. Prior to wrapping up filming on Extraction 2, in fact, Hemsworth was working on the highly anticipated MCU sequel Thor: Love and Thunder, and now, it appears that his turn as the lead villain in Furiosa is next on his list.

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If these three franchises weren’t enough, another that Hemsworth was reportedly tied to was Star Trek. Although he initially had limited screen time in the first movie, released in 2009, Hemsworth was reportedly attached to the upcoming Star Trek 4, reprising his role as Captain Kirk’s (Chris Pine) father. It’s no surprise that the franchise was keen to get him back on-board, considering how his star power has increased exponentially between 2009 and now. Unfortunately, Hemsworth ultimately turned down returning to the franchise. Here’s why.

Star Trek 4 Had an Uneven Path of Development

     Paramount Pictures

The Star Trek franchise has been needing to be developed further for some time now, and reports began to surface around 2016 that a story idea was in development for Star Trek 4, which would see Hemsworth’s George Kirk reunite with his son in a plot that would focus strongly on the development of their characters. It was also announced that J.J. Abrams would return to the role of producer and the screenplay would be written by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay to take the story in a new direction.

Not long after this, in 2018, it was reported that both actors were considering pulling from Star Trek 4 for reasons that were being attributed to budget disputes regarding their potential salaries for the film. It had since been corrected that this may not have been the case, but rather the path for the development of the film may have been difficult and lacked a clear progression. Before Hemsworth had pulled from the project, it was revealed that there were multiple versions of the script in existence, but a direction was not clear, which would likely have influenced Hemsworth’s decision to leave. In spite of this, Pine has been confirmed to star in and has even expressed excitement about Star Trek 4.

Chris Hemsworth is Tied to Other Franchises

     Marvel Studios

Star Trek 4 had yet to lock in a director for a while, but, according to Variety, one filmmaker who had been tied to discussions of the project on multiple occasions is none other than Quentin Tarantino. Of course, while these discussions took place, Hemsworth’s scheduled naturally filled up with Thor and Avengers sequels, as well as other projects and franchises. In addition to the MCU, during the time of locking in a director for Star Trek 4, Hemsworth was tied to the Men in Black franchise, the live-action Snow White movies opposite Charlize Theron, an upcoming Hulk Hogan biopic from director Todd Phillips, and now both Extraction and Furiosa. On top of that, there have been discussions of his possible involvement in future James Bond movies, so his schedule is not looking quiet anytime soon.

Star Trek 4 Ideas Developed Too Slowly

Star Trek 3 ended with Captain Kirk declining the promotion to Vice Admiral and remaining as Captain of the USS Enterprise. Spock also chose to remain in the Starfleet and began to embark on a romance again with Uhura. By the end of the movie, we saw them already continuing their mission on a new USS Enterprise after the previous one was destroyed. This initially opened a lot of possibilities for Star Trek 4, which is perhaps why there have been so many delays: too many ideas, in this case, was a bad thing.

Overall, Star Trek 4 has encountered different kinds of delays at almost every step of the road. The initial script written by Payne and McKay was scrapped entirely, which urged the project to move in a completely new direction. As such, the movie sat dormant for a while, and it wasn’t until 2018 that there was progress again. At this point, S.J. Clarkson was hired to direct, though he also left the project. Now, WandaVision director Matt Shakman is on-board with a script from Josh Friedman and Cameron squires. For Hemsworth, though he maintains interest in returning to the franchise, it was a matter of timing.