Chris Hemsworth to return for STAR TREK 4!… Wait, what?!

A few years before he would start swinging his thunderous hammer around the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Thor, Chris Hemsworth had a small but rather pivotal role in his first big Hollywood production: Star Trek.

The JJ Abrams directed 2009 reboot franchise opened with Hemsworth as First Officer George Kirk of the USS Kelvin, just moments after his wife has given birth onboard, and while the ship is being attacked by a mysterious Romulan craft. With his captain killed and his ship severely damaged, Kirk is forced to have his crew and family abandon ship while he pilots the Kelvin straight into the enemy in a last ditch effort to buy his people – and especially his newborn son James T. Kirk – the time they need to get to safety. And they luckily do as Kirk dies a valiant heroic death… and now he’s coming back. Somehow.

According to a tweet from Scott Mantz of Access Hollywood, he got an exclusive scoop from Abrams himself that the upcoming Star Trek 4 will see Hemsworth returning to the franchise alongside Chris Pine, who of course plays the now grown-up James Kirk.

BREAKING!! #JJAbrams confirms to me that a 4th #StarTrek movie will bring together #ChrisPine & #ChrisHemsworth!! pic.twitter.com/9WRDKw54d4

— Scott Mantz (@MovieMantz) July 15, 2016

Up until this point, we hadn’t really known anything about Star Trek 4 other than it was indeed happening after the upcoming Star Trek Beyond, and that Pine and co-star Zachary Quinto aka Spock would be returning. But judging by the specific wording of Mantz’s tweet about bringing them together, it sounds possible that 0Hemsworth might be a proper co-star and not just show up in something like a flashback.

And if you were wondering this could happen seeing as he died three decades ago in the movie’s timeline, well then clearly you never actually watched Star Trek. The mysterious Romulan ship that set all these events in motion was of course actually from the future and it jumping back in time is what caused a new timeline to form, different to that of the classic TV series and movies. This new timeline has recently been given the official title of the Kelvin Timeline, named after this inciting incident.

The classic Star Trek movie and TV series also did their fair share of dabbling with time travel, so it’s certainly entirely plausible that the still unnamed Star Trek 4 will perhaps see James Kirk going back in time to rescue his father. Maybe even pulling him from the craft just moments before his death so that there are no new paradoxes created in the already twisty new timeline.

However they manage to get the two Kirks together, there’s no denying the action hero potency of Pine and Hemsworth side by side. And seeing as how the trailers for Star Trek Beyond have already hinted strongly at some of the daddy issues that Kirk junior has to still resolve, there will definitely be enough dramatic meat to chew on here.

Are you excited for the possible team of Pine and Hemsworth boldly going where no father and son duo has gone before?

Last Updated: July 18, 2016