Chris Pine succeeded William Shatner as James T. Kirk when 2009’s Star Trek rebooted the franchise, while a pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth made a minor appearance in that same movie as George Kirk, James’ father.
Around the time Star Trek Beyond came out, it was announced that the two Kirk men would cross paths in Star Trek 4, but according to THR, Pine and Hemsworth have exited talks with Paramount Pictures and Skydance Media about the fourth installment set in the Kelvin timeline.
One insider even claims that both Paramount and Skydance lost money on Beyond.
The collapsed deals came down to money, as both actors wanted the studios to stick to the existing deals, but Paramount insisted on them taking pay cuts in order to stick to a budget, noting that Beyond didn’t commercially perform as well as was hoped.