In an extensive interview about his career with Variety, Chris Hemsworth (George Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek) touched on why he turned down returning to the franchise in a fourth Kelvin universe movie. The fourth movie has been waiting in the wings for a long time. At last report, Hemsworth, along with Chris Pine, had “walked away” from the table while renegotiating salaries. It looks like there was a bit more to this, as Variety explains:

He turned down the next “Star Trek” sequel because he wasn’t sold on the script. “I didn’t feel like we landed on a reason to revisit that yet,” he reveals. “I didn’t want to be underwhelmed by what I was going to bring to the table.”

Hemsworth’s name has been floating around for another beloved and enduring franchise, the James Bond series. When asked if he’d consider it, he put forth another fan favorite name, best known to Trekkies as Krall in Star Trek Beyond.

He’s open to the possibility, but he also endorses another contender. “My vote would be Idris [Elba],” he says. “I think he’d give it a different sort of swagger, too, and each time someone new comes into the role, I think you’ve got to offer up something different.”

Star Trek 4’s uneven path of development

Pre-announced by J.J. Abrams before Star Trek Beyond had even opened, the fourth Kelvin universe movie has had a bit of a strange development cycle. The script was written by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, who were collaborating with Roberto Orci on a potential third film before Paramount decided to go in a different direction. The movie then sat dormant until 2018 when suddenly it looked like the wheels were motion. Director S.J. Clarkson was hired in April 2018. Then momentum seemed to slow, and in August it was reported that Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth had walked away from the negotiation table while trying to come to new terms over salaries. That seemed to kill the project right there. Director Clarkson moved on, and at last report in January 2019, the industry trade magazines consider the movie “shelved.”