Noah Hawley's 'Star Trek' movie will feature a franchise-related twist

Though Fargo series creator Noah Hawley's Star Trek movie appears to be on pause, the director has dropped a couple of hints as to what it could look like.

The franchise wound up in its current guise after the poor showing at the box office for Star Trek Beyond in 2016.

It suffered a further devastating blow after key cast-member Anton Yelchin died in an accident later that year.

Hawley was all set to revive the veteran sci-fi series for the big screen up until recently, when word emerged that Paramount had put the production on hiatus.

According to reports, this was not unrelated to the fact that Hawley's concept involved a 'plot centering around a virus that wipes out vast parts of the known universe', which has become something of a sensitive subject in recent months for obvious reasons.

Hawley had also previously said that his iteration of the franchise would not feature the J.J. Abrams -produced trilogy cast, something he's now expanded upon.

Speaking to Variety, and confirming the project is still very much in play, he said: “We’re not doing Kirk and we’re not doing Picard.

“It’s a start from scratch that then allows us to do what we did with Fargo, where for the first three hours you go, ‘Oh, it really has nothing to do with the movie,’ and then you find the money. So you reward the audience with a thing that they love.”

The article adds that the film has 'an explicit connection to franchise canon', though what this is appears to be under wraps.

Hawley was speaking ahead of the release of the fourth season of Fargo, starring Chris Rock and set to premiere in the US at the end of the month.