A fourth Kevin-verse “Star Trek” film has been in development hell for so long, there is a Wikipedia page devoted to its suffering. “Star Trek Beyond” was released in theaters in 2016, and in the intervening time, a follow-up film has been set up, torn down, handed to a new director, set up and torn down again, handed off again, and so on for several iterations. The overriding idea for “Star Trek 4” has been to somehow get Captain Kirk in the same room with his deceased father, mostly because the actors playing those characters — Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth, respectively — are such big movie stars. 

But the fates have persistently denied production from commencing in earnest. Firstly, there were wild reports that Quentin Tarantino would make a “Star Trek” film of his own, although he wanted it to be a new rebooted version of the “Star Trek” mythos,…