Could ‘Star Trek’ Be Quentin Tarantino’s Final Film?

With the impending release of his ninth film, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” discourse has once again turned to writer-director Quentin Tarantino’s long-held pledge to retire after 10 films and his proposed new “Star Trek” film.

While speaking with CinemaBlend on the press tour for his latest release, Tarantino discussed the logistics of possibly directing his “Star Trek” script and whether or not that film would count as his final release.

“I guess I do have a loophole, [if] the idea was to throw a loophole into it,” Tarantino said. “Which would be [to go], ‘Uhhh, I guess Star Trek doesn't count. I can do Star Trek … but naturally I would end on an original.’”

As he explains, this mysterious “Star Trek” pitch could end up not counting towards his 10-film goal if all of those films have to be original scripts, thus allowing him to explore the Final Frontier while also bowing out on his own terms. This would, however, raise other issues, as Tarantino’s third film, “Jackie Brown,” is a heavily reworked adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novel, “The Rum Punch.”

Despite this potential loophole, Tarantino went on to say that he isn’t looking for any wiggle room in his promised retirement ultimatum.

“But the idea of doing 10 isn’t to come up with a loophole,” he explained. “I actually think, if I was going to do ‘Star Trek,’ I should commit to it. It’s my last movie. There should be nothing left-handed about it. I don’t know if I’m going to do that, but that might happen.”

For now, nothing is certain about Tarantino’s future as a filmmaker. His pitch for a new “Star Trek” film remains hypothetical, at odds with a standard sequel to “Star Trek Beyond,” which has faced numerous productions stalls since 2016.