It's hard to fathom now, but a decade ago, Star Trek felt like a dead franchise, with the last ongoing television series, Enterprise, having boldly gone under four years prior.

A year later and JJ Abrams' bold big-screen reinvention of the original Trek would breathe new life into Gene Roddenberry's creation, with Star Trek: Discovery finally bringing Starfleet back to television – well, streaming – in 2017.

Star Trek is officially back, and on fine form. But since then Discovery has undergone a behind-the-scenes overhaul, there are conversations about a fourth Abrams-produced Trek and a standalone film spin-off, plus reports of at least five new TV shows in development. It's become rather tricky to keep track of where exactly the franchise is heading.

Here's a quick and simple guide to all the various Trek projects in the works, and at various different stages, right now.

Star Trek on television

Star Trek: Discovery

After a shaky start which saw Bryan Fuller depart his post as showrunner, Trek's big TV comeback ended up proving a soaraway success, impressing the majority of fans and critics (at least once initial concerns surrounding the show's dark tone had faded).

CBS ordered a second season to stream on its platform CBS All Access, with Netflix confirming plans to continue carrying Discovery in the UK and internationally.

But then... a potential new crisis on the horizon! Fuller's replacements, Gretchen J Berg and Aaron Harberts, abruptly exited midway through production of the new episodes. Alex Kurtzman, already an executive producer on the series, has stepped up as Discovery's third showrunner... and the good news is that this switcheroo apparently hasn't put a halt on production.

Season two will launch in 2019.

Related: Star Trek: Discovery season 2 – Release date, cast, timeline and everything you need to know

Captain Picard series – with Patrick Stewart

CBS via Getty Images

Here's where things go a bit mad. Shortly after it was announced he'd be taking the helm of Discovery, Kurtzman was also revealed to have signed a five-year deal to oversee and expand the Trek franchise for television.

One of the new series in development, according to The Hollywood Reporter, will see Sir Patrick Stewart reprise his role of The Next Generation's Captain Picard on-screen for the first time since 2002.

Before news of Kurtzman's deal broke, Stewart had hinted at a possible return to Trek, saying he hadn't watched Discovery but "may have good cause to look at it very soon".

On December 4, 2018, CBS All Access boss David Nevins confirmed the series would land toward the end of 2019.

Starfleet Academy

Paramount CBS

Another exciting project taking shape as part of Kurtzman's roster is, according to Variety, a series set at Starfleet Academy.

The series would presumably feature a cast younger than the Trek norm, and, suitably enough, it reportedly has Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz – of Gossip Girl and Marvel's Runaways – on board as joint showrunners.

There have been comic books and computer games based around Starfleet Academy before, but never a television series (though the concept was briefly considered in the 1980s, before The Next Generation was conceived).

The Wrath of Khan

CBS via Getty Images

KHAAAA-AAAAANN!

Yes, a limited series is reportedly in the works based around the character of Trek villain Khan Noonien Singh – as played by Ricardo Montalbán in the original series episode 'Space Speed' and much-loved big-screen outing Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan. (He was also played by Benedict Cumberbatch in Star Trek Into Darkness, but we don't like to talk about that.)

The mini-series angle was first reported when news broke of Kurtzman's mega-deal, though rumours of a Khan spin-off had actually surfaced much earlier, in August 2017, when Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer was linked to the project.

Let's hope it actually materialises, and doesn't end up marooned for all eternity...

Mysterious limited series No. 2

Alongside the Khan mini, another limited series is also being developed as part of the Kurtzman masterplan, but this one's plot details are being kept under wraps.

Maybe Michael Dorn's Worf Chronicles is finally going to make it to the screen? The poor guy can't keep on being denied.

A new animated series

Paramount CBS

Trek is also going to be branching out into animation, though again any further details related to this project – setting, characters – aren't being disclosed for now.

This series will be the first bona-fide Trek cartoon in 45 years. It follows in the footsteps of Star Trek: The Animated Series, which aired after, and continued the narrative of, the original series from 1973-74, with most of the original cast (Shatner, Nimoy et al) all lending their voices.

What's the price of a comeback for Lieutenant M'Ress, Chekov's replacement, who was literally a cat lady in a Starfleet uniform?

A new Star Trek "trilogy"

Paramount Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images

Back in May, the aforementioned Nicholas Meyer alleged that an ongoing legal battle between CBS and Paramount/Viacom had put pay to a "stand-alone Star Trek-related trilogy" that he'd been developing.

It's unclear exactly what Meyer was talking about, but he did mention that the venture was being written for streaming service CBS All Access. So maybe a linked trilogy of 'television' movies? We may never know what was being planned here, unless the legal wrangles can be untangled or Meyer lets more slip.

Short Treks

Currently available to view online, Short Treks are 15-minute short movies set in the Star Trek universe. Three – 'Calypso', 'Runaway' and 'Brightest Star' have aired already, with the last of the existing four, 'The Escape Artist' due on January 3.



Star Trek at the movies

Star Trek 4

Paramount

Star Trek Beyond did decent numbers at the box office, with Simon Pegg confirming back in April that plans were afoot for a fourth film in the JJ Abrams-produced series. "I know we're doing more," he said. "I'd love to – I love those guys."

The Scotty actor (who also wrote Beyond) added at the time that it still felt "unimaginable" making a Star Trek 4 without the late Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov. But it emerged shortly afterward that Paramount was in talks with Jessica Jones director SJ Clarkson to helm the movie, so it looks as though the project is inching forward – though without the Kirk boys, Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth.

Tarantino's Trek

Adam Pretty/Getty Images

Some confusion over the fate of Star Trek 4 arose in December of last year when it emerged that Quentin Tarantino – yup, really – was developing his own idea for a Trek film at Paramount.

Though early reports had Tarantino working on an R-rated script withThe Revenant writer Mark L Smith, Simon Pegg insisted that the planned movie "won't be anything a Star Trek fan will have to worry about" and certainly not "Pulp Fiction in space".

Pegg later cast doubt on the movie happening at all, suggesting that Tarantino's commitment to his Charles Manson movie Once Upon A Time In Hollywood might lure him away from the director's chair.

But Paramount confirmed in April that there are two new Trek films in the works – presumably Tarantino's and the 'regular' Star Trek 4, so it appears both remain on the slate for now.

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