Alex Kurtzman Is FINALLY Out At Star Trek And Paramount Isn't Renewing His Contract!

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]A couple of weeks ago, I reported that Paramount was having legal issues with Alex Curtsman in company, who's been dragging his heels and kicking and screaming on his way out the door at Star Trek. There doesn't seem to be a way that things are going forward. Uh, from reports of things, it's just been a big PR disaster all the way around.

[00:00:19]Paramount feels he uh hurt the brand in a lot of ways, and he did. It's very obvious what they did with Starfleet Academy. The whole cast and crew throwing fits about Starfleet Academy and treating the fans very poorly in the process probably did not help things on the way out the door as well. These negotiations have gone on a long time.

[00:00:36]Now, Alex Kurtzman's had a contract for a long time that is a very favorable contract that's made him exceedingly rich over the course of things. So, he's got a little FU money, but he also wants to still remain involved and retain the power and the like. So, it's a weird dynamic there. He also doesn't think he's done anything wrong with Star Trek.

[00:00:52]he actually they truly believe they have great product here and that this is the way things should go and they should push their identity politics even further into everything is really really sickening what they've done to everything and of course turned off a lot of fans in the process. Now, there were some reports saying that like my reports were inaccurate that there were some legal troubles on it. That seems to be flipping around at this point, and that's pretty interesting because uh I have a pretty solid contact that's doing pretty well and of course has always gave me me pretty good information on the course of things. And I'm glad to be validated a little bit and proven right, which I'm going to get into in just a moment. So, I'm right and we've got a little bit of an update at this point because the contract's getting very close to up now. And uh this will go on as we're launching into Strange New World Season 4 and beyond. Uh they're wrapping up, of course, all of the post-prouction uh that's going to be going on with Starfleet Academy season 2 and Strange New World season 5. Uh that's all going on. Yeah, it's it's all filmed. We have this coming. Uh but it is going to be the end of the era of Curtsman finally, it looks like. And I don't see anything changing this. It could happen, but I'll get into the details and talk about why that is in just a moment. So, please hit the like, subscribe button, join us as we talk about all things Star Trek. I have a newsletter here, guys, in the description below. And I appreciate you for being here. I'm a sci-fi writer.

[00:02:03]That's what I do first. And so I've written a beautiful trilogy that's going to be coming out called Valiant Frontiers. And if you like space exploration, if you like the fun that Star Trek used to be, you are going to love this trilogy. I first did it on uh Kickstarter last year and uh delivered those books first before we put them up for general release and the like. And now they're going to be coming out. So sign up in the description below so you don't miss them because I might never find you again. The algorithm now is killing Star Trek channels because there's nothing to talk about for Star Trek. So I mean this might be the last time I ever see you. like I mean YouTube will just disappear me from your feed for a while here at least. So please check it out. It's in the description below and thanks for being here. Grab your free books and of course uh check things out when they come out. You're going to be very very happy and I appreciate you being here. I do comics, I do sci-fi, I do fantasy, a little of everything for everybody. And uh it's what Star Trek should be, a little of something for everybody. So yeah, I saw this video the other day uh on Tachon P's podcast. Now, um I made a couple couple videos uh about my my talks about what's going on at Paramount and the like. Uh and he said his guy said those that it was unequivocally wrong that there was no legal battle. Nobody's uh talking about anything, which is kind of weird. And I'm like, well, my guy says that it is. Um and so what's happening here? Now, I know he's got a guy with Secret Hideout on that side. And what what's interesting to me is like I feel like Secret Hideout would have an incentive to actually say that the legal battle is not going on because they want to present themselves as a happy face like everything's going good for them and that Paramount is beholden to them.

[00:03:27]And we've seen that I I think the trajectory within the Trek media all the way around trying to project that things are good and that Paramount should pick them up. They've been they've been doing this whole narrative that Starfleet Academy found its audience towards the end, that people are picking it up, that there's a petition to get it going again. And uh they they they've used these sort of tactics through the media too many times. I don't think anybody believes it. And I think the Ellison and company that now own Paramount are a little too smart to go with that. Now, behind the scenes, what I was told and what I told you guys back in the day was that Alex Kurtsman uh was having a legal battle going on with uh with Paramount.

[00:04:03]And that's what that's what was going on behind the scenes. Now, Alex Kurtzman owns a weird deal with these people. And with these deals, um they uh have a situation where it was like, let's see, uh he gets a lot of money. Obviously, they have a huge budget and the like.

[00:04:21]And they uh also gave him like some like creators rights where he like owns a percentage take of stuff he created.

[00:04:28]Now, that causes some complications. uh Discovery overlaps with the original series and some with Strang Worlds. Uh of course uh the uh Pequard like sets things 20 30 years down the line. So how do you then follow something up with that without even referencing that?

[00:04:42]That's pretty pretty uh pretty tough right there. And they don't want to pay out on that in perpetuity. It muddies the waters and makes things difficult for the brand, right? They just want it to go away. So my thought was so what I was told was Paramount was talking to them about like, hey, could we give you a balloon payment to just end this? Make it go away. we can have it clean so we don't have to deal with this with the brand going further and Alex Kersman came back with basically a list of demands of like you know I want a Starfleet Academy season 3 and there was a big fight over that and uh since they can't get that uh he's out and of course uh and then things kind of shut down that they had meetings talking about this okay so it looks like what happened on this was uh that they went to different rounds of negotiating and the like and when you get into what they were saying. Trying to actually pull up the the stuff my contact said so that we can I should have done this before the video. That's what a that's what a that's what a smart person would have done. But I'm not I'm not smart. I'm not a YouTuber. I'm a writer. So, uh what I was told was that they went to a round of negotiations, right? um and that this round of negotiations uh was going to uh be a a sort of like last chance sort of thing that he can accept the settlement seed the rights right now he gets praised in the media doesn't get blacklisted or completed and if he doesn't play ball well he's going to be screwed in this and because you know there it's kind of an implicit threat he didn't take kindly to that and that all like kind of threw a fit so that uh came out there as well the contract is going to be up in uh July uh according to what everybody's saying and uh it looks like things at that point turned very very toxic in the negotiations. Paramount was refusing to give the balloon payment.

[00:06:25]Kerschman won't surrender the rights and uh and Paramount of course wanted to announce United uh which is uh the Michael Susman project that is going to be bringing back Enterprise but later with President Archer and because of that they have to they're they're like trying to get that announcement train going faster and Kersman can't. So that meeting apparently went very very poorly and there was talk about maybe this might even go to arbitration and the like cuz Kurtsman might be sue happy with some of this stuff. It's a little bit of speculation there and it was speculation. Now of course uh it it looks like that meeting did end up killing things and of course now we're talking about there might be a legal battle and speculation that's coming from other sources out there as well. So it looks like my source was correct after all on all this and that that of course that was happening. Now, from what I understand after this, there's not really been meetings anymore.

[00:07:14]Paramount just kind of gave up on it.

[00:07:16]They're letting it die because that's it. So, what's happening? Because we're now into May. Uh there's less time on Kurtzman's contract. You know, it doesn't hurt Paramount to wait and announce and start building things a month or two later now. I mean, when there was four months, maybe they wanted to get it going a little faster. Not so much anymore, right? So, what I'm hearing is that they're not negotiating at all at this point. Paramount is thinking just let it lapse, let it drag out over the next uh you know bit here and uh and even drag this out over the next few years if Kurtzman wants to make a fuss and go into courts. He's on everybody's list at Paramount and he's about to become uh you know an industry uh you know that is going to be not wanting to work with him and Paramount's going to own a lot of the industry if they if this Warner Brothers merger goes through as well. So that's going to be a very very negative thing for him to find work anywhere at this point as well. So, his leverage kind of went up. Uh, and it looks like they're not negotiating anymore at this point.

[00:08:09]Like I said, this all ends as far as a contract goes in July. Then they can start announcing new things. If Kurtzman wants to start entangling things in legal battles, it gets kind of weird at that point. Uh, and I don't think he has as much leverage as he thinks he has.

[00:08:22]Uh, but this is where they're at now.

[00:08:24]Paramount just kind of has given up on it all and is just in waiting mode uh to get their new projects going. So, hopefully United still can go through and still can work with all the timing of everything. We know that they have a movie in development. I mentioned my source also said there's a second movie in development that is slated for a year after the first one. So, we'll see what happens with that and where that all goes. So, there's a lot of stuff that is going on. Paramount can do movies. They just can't do TV uh with the Kurtsman contract. It's a weird thing. Um and so, uh there's no Star Trek TV, of course, that's in development right now, but we still have a two three seasons of Kirchman Trek left to air. So, they've got a while so they can actually start developing things. uh even once this contract goes up at that point. So negotiations are dead. Looked pretty ugly. And uh this, you know, is a fine day for Star Trek fans cuz like we don't have to deal with any of this for much longer. I really hope they do write it all out of continuity, make it all go away because that would be the best thing going forward. Uh we don't want to deal with it. And uh maybe I'll uh I I did a analysis on how United could build a timeline and fix everything so it's all written out of it. Maybe I'll do that with a a a post legacy legacy that's not really legacy and I'll I'll work and develop my own Star Trek that I would I would like to see as a continuation coming on right now. And I'll do that as a video for you guys cuz I think that'd be a lot of fun.

[00:09:43]Uh as a sci-fi writer, it's kind of what I do. All right, leave a comment down below. Let me know what you think about this. Hit the like and subscribe button.

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