‘Star Trek’ Sequel Delayed?

J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot accomplished many things. It breathed new life into the staggering sci-fi franchise, it gave countless moviegoers an access point to the sprawling and downright confusing Star Trek mythology and—perhaps most importantly for Paramount Pictures—it set the stage for the further adventures of Kirk, Spock and the rest of the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise. So, two years later, Trekkers and casual fans alike are still wondering: What’s the deal with the sequel?

Well, according to Deadline.com—a site that tends to be pretty accurate when it comes to things like this—the next Star Trek film will likely fail to meet its scheduled July 29, 2012, release date. More realistically, we can expect the sequel at the end of next year, as the film is little more than a 70-page outline at this point, 13 months removed from its original release date.

This news doesn’t exactly set my phaser to stunned. After all, the revamped Trek was pushed back from December 2008 to May 2009, and that extra time seemed to work in its favor. However, it’s troubling that none of the creative forces behind that first film seems to be all that enthusiastic about moving next installment forward. If the point of Abrams’ film was to make the property relevant once again, it did just that. Now what? People are going to start losing interest again if we don’t start getting some concrete news on the future of this franchise.

Hopefully, we’ll be hearing more about Star Trek 2 after Abrams’ Super 8 hits theaters on June 10.