First we heard Quentin Tarantino and JJ Abrams were teaming up for a new Star Trek sequel. Then we heard Tarantino had somehow convinced both Abrams and Paramount to let this be the first-ever R-rated Star Trek movie.

And now, just when you think the situation couldn't get any weirder, Patrick Stewart shows up telling The Hollywood Reporter that he'd be interested in reprising his iconic Jean-Luc Picard role in Tarantino's Star Trek.

Says Stewart:

"People are always saying to me, 'Will you be Jean-Luc Picard again?' And I cannot think that would be possible, but there are ways in which something like that might come about." "But one of my dreams is to work with Tarantino. I admire his work so much and to be in a Tarantino film would give me so much satisfaction. So, if he is going to direct something to do with Star Trek and there was the possibility of dear old Jean-Luc showing up again and doing that for Mr. Tarantino, I would embrace it."

Intriguingly enough, Tarantino appeared on the Nerdist podcast a while back and mentioned that his pitch for a Trek film would be based, at least in part, on Star Trek: The Next Generation's season three episode, "Yesterday's Enterprise" (Andrew wrote up an excellent breakdown on how that pitch might work here). This doesn't mean anything, of course - so far, the implication has been that Tarantino's Trek would focus on the crew introduced in JJ Abrams' reboot - but it's admittedly very fun to imagine Tarantino finding a role for Stewart in...well, whatever the hell his Star Trek is going to be.

The BMD crew is very intrigued by all of this, but it's probably worth noting that almost none of us believe Quentin Tarantino is actually going to direct a Star Trek movie (much less one based on a script he didn't actually write). We're crossing our fingers and will continue to monitor this situation very closely, but come on: do we really think this is gonna happen? Sound off with your thoughts in the comments below.