Rumours have been saying that J.J. Abrams was set to leave the new Star Wars film but Lucasfilm have been quick to come out and say that this just isn’t true and refute the rumour. Meanwhile there are rumours coming about some of the names behind the Star Trek franchise.

If they are to be trusted, the rumours not the writers, then Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are leaving the franchise that they wrote the first two films of and we might see a change of direction for the third.

Something I was very disappointed about with Star Trek Into Darkness (Filmstalker review) was the work that was done on creating a whole new universe in which to place the old Star Trek crew and create new stories for them, but what have we seen? The old stories rehashed and one scene brought from a previous film with characters swapped around to try and justify the new universe. To me that stank.

If you are going to create a new franchise then go and create a new franchise. If you need to stay with the fans of the old franchise then do that, you can’t do both.

Well actually that’s not true, with the whole new universe idea they have managed to successfully bring the young crew to life but with all new stories ahead of them, this is the new franchise, so why the need to constantly go back to the old one for stories and complete scenes?

I wonder if this played a hand in the writers being changed for this third film? If it did then the studio should be looking at everyone involved in the production for they all made that film.

Anyway, as Lucasfilm through the L.A. Times tells us J.J. Abrams is not leaving Star Wars: Episode VII and that everyone seems as happy as anything on the project. I’d be surprised if he was leaving so early to be honest and if he was that would be a really bad sign for the production, probably suggesting that Disney are being far too controlling over their new property.

Turning to the other rumour which comes from Badassdigest through The Hollywood Reporter, and the story that the writers of the first two Star Trek films in the rebooted franchise are leaving, or have already left, and new blood is being sought out.

That would mean Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are off the project, I wonder if they might follow Abrams to Star Wars?

The rumour suggests that Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz are being considered for the jobs, and considering they have worked with Abrams before through Fringe and have had recent success writing on Thor (Filmstalker review) and X-Men: First Class then it wouldn’t be such a stretch to imagine them taking on the role.

Of course that doesn’t mean all change on the film, after all they have worked closely with Abrams before and there were other writers involved in the previous Star Trek films – Abrams himself and Damon Lindeloff.

So what does this all mean? Well Star Wars is still on track and Star Trek is going through a little shake up. Hopefully this means that the new Star Trek franchise can try and deliver something from its new universe this time around.