While the classic Star Trek TV series have all settled in at Paramount+, the Star Trek movies have continued to bounce around. However, as of next week they are coming back to the streaming service that purports to be “the home of Star Trek” in the USA.
All the movies in one place
At the beginning of this year, the six TOS-era Star Trek movies (The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, The Voyage Home, The Final Frontier, and The Undiscovered Country) and four TNG-era movies (Generations, First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis) all moved to the Max streaming service and the HBO premium cable channel. That licensing deal wraps up at the end of June and Paramount+ has confirmed that all 10 of those movies will return to “the Home of Star Trek” on Monday, July 1. The returning movies includes the 4K Directors Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. With the addition of the current Paramount+ library that includes the three J.J. Abrams-produced Kelvin Universe movies, Paramount+ will again feature the full Star Trek movie library, at least for the short term.
The future is licensing
We have seen some or all of the Star Trek movies leave and return to Paramount+ (and previously CBS All Access) over recent years, so it’s quite possible another licensing deal could see the movies exit again. In fact, Paramount Global has been talking more about licensing content as the company struggles to pay off the heavy debt load it has incurred over recent years building up its (still not profitable) streaming service. It would not be surprising to also see the five “legacy” Star Trek TV series again licensed out to other streamers, although those would likely not be exclusive. Before 2022, in the USA Paramount had licensed the classic TV shows to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video concurrently.
Of course, the future of Paramount+ itself is still up in the air. After talks broke down for the Paramount Global merger with Skydance earlier this month, the company is now focused on ways to streamline and cut costs. This includes looking to to form a joint venture for its streaming service, with potential partnerships suggested with Waner Discovery’s Max, Amazon Prime Video, and Comcast’s Peacock. Presumably, the legacy and Paramount+ original Star Trek shows (and movies, including the upcoming Section 31 streaming movie) would be part of this joint venture. However, recent history shows that nothing can be certain when it comes to Paramount Global and how it is handling its streaming service… Actually, there is one certainty: pricing on Paramount+ is set to go up in August.
