Tom Hardy was last seen in the recently released Venom: The Last Dance, which seems to be struggling at the box office. The final film of the Venom trilogy will mostly be Hardy’s last appearance as the loud-mouthed symbiote. While the franchise was not one of the best, Hardy’s performance as Eddie Brock and Venom stole the show.
Hardy is no stranger to blockbuster franchises, with one of his earliest roles being Star Trek: Nemesis. The actor played an evil clone of Patrick Stewart’s Captain Picard in the film. While Hardy may not be a fan of the film, the perfect comeback for him would be in Quentin Tarantino’s canceled R-rated Star Trek film.
Should Tom Hardy Revive Quentin Tarantino’s R-Rated Star Trek Film?
Tom Hardy’s Venom: The Last Dance was released recently to mixed reviews and is reportedly projected to close the weekend with $180 million (via Deadline). The film was the third one in Hardy’s Venom Trilogy, which began back in 2018. The film is part of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which has other entries like Madame Web and Morbius.
With Hardy set to exit the blockbuster franchise, the Inception star would probably be looking for his next big film. Though he is still George Miller’s Mad Max, a sequel is still unclear. However, there might be one franchise that Hardy was already a part of and one project that would be perfect for him to get his hands on.
Quentin Tarantino had reportedly pitched an R-rated Star Trek film to JJ Abrams and it was even accepted (via Variety). However, the film never materialized because he did not want it to be his “last” film. Writer Mark L. Smith, who reportedly collaborated with Tarantino on the script revealed some key details regarding the “greatest Star Trek film never made” (via Collider),
I think his vision was just to go hard. It was a hard R. It was going to be some Pulp Fiction violence. Not a lot of the language, we saved a couple of things for just special characters to kind of drop that into the Star Trek world, but it was just really the edginess and the kind of that Tarantino flair, man, that he was bringing to it. It would have been cool.
There have been no details regarding what the film’s story was or if it was set in the Kelvin timeline. However, the film remains unmade and both parties seem to have moved on from the project.
Tom Hardy Was Terrified While Filming Star Trek: Nemesis
With his experience in headlining big blockbuster franchises like Venom and Mad Max, Tom Hardy would have been perfect for Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek film. The actor has already played Shinzon, a clone of Captain Picard who is the main antagonist in Star Trek: Nemesis. The film is not considered to be a good entry in the franchise by both the fans and the cast.
While the actor was extremely young at the time, he mentioned that he was terrified while filming it as he realized how different things were from script to screen. He said to the BBC,
It’s one thing to see something on the page and get very, very excited; everything’s so much better when you’re on your own in front of the bathroom mirror. The practicalities were I’ve never been to Hollywood before, never worked on a franchise like this, and I’m relatively inexperienced, to be honest. So I was terrified of failure.
Despite his fears and the film not faring well, Hardy seemed to have overcome these hurdles and become an A-lister. If he chooses to and has the approval of Quentin Tarantino, the R-rated Star Trek film would be the perfect comeback vehicle for the actor.
Star Trek: Nemesis is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
