Star Trek 4 makes franchise history with first ever female director; beams up Jessica Jones' SJ Clarkson

Paramount CEO Jim Gianopulos ended mounting speculation over the studio's lucrative Star Trek franchise by confirming two new movies at CinemaCon on Wednesday.

Variety reported on Thursday that British director SJ Clarkson has been roped in to helm the fourth installment, becoming the first woman director to take charge of a movie in the long-running series.

SJ Clarkson (L); Chris Pine as James T Kirk in Star Trek: Beyond. Images via Twitter

Clarkson's directing credits include Marvel TV series such as Jessica Jones and The Defenders. She has also directed episodes for House, Dexter, Orange Is the New Black and most recently, the entire BBC Two and Netflix miniseries Collateral.

In July 2016, the studio had announced that the next Star Trek chapter would see Chris Hemsworth return as George Kirk, the father of Captain James T Kirk (played by Chris Pine). Hemsworth's character was killed in the opening minutes of Star Trek's 2009 reboot.

The new movie will be a separate project from the more recently announced Quentin Tarantino film.

JJ Abrams, the creative force behind the reboots, was not at CinemaCon but he appeared in a video to promote horror movie Overlord, the first R-rated release from his Bad Robot production company.

Abrams scotched rumors that the World War II Nazi experiments shocker would be another release in the Cloverfield series.