Why not do one w/o Pine? Or recast? As a high school teacher, I can tell you kids have no knowledge or caring of movie Trek, thus my assumption the general public wouldn't care much. Or ditch him, make Spock captain, and take the crew a whole new direction?
Ditching Pine or recast him is extreme, and IMO unnecessary. If they cannot find a deal with him to have him in the movie with a big role, they can still give him a smaller one this round ( so the actor is still available for other projects too) and make a movie where Spock is indeed the captain because Kirk has gone mia in one mission and the crew essentially tries to find him. Or maybe the ones gone mia are Spock, Uhura and others and the main plot isn't aboard the ship (that being the secondary, parallel, plot with Kirk) but what is happening on that planet while Kirk's friends struggle to contact him and starfleet to get help.
Idk, put some cute small new aliens (who speak a weird language of sounds and signs that Uhura can figure out ) helping the missing crew members that would sell a ton of toys too, since you are at it?
This is what kelvin trek fails to do, btw: create more merchandising stuff and monetize on that too between movies.
Take Uhura's necklace from beyond: why on earth they didn't release a version of it that fans could buy? I've read so many people everywhere asking where they could buy a 'tracking device' necklace. It's actually pretty and would make such a funny, cute, valentine gift for fans and non fans.
My understanding is that the they might not even be allowed to use that same necklace in other movies because licensing rights complicate matters. The fact they changed the uniforms in beyond may not be a stylish choice only. If they make another movie, you might not see, again, a lot of the things you saw in beyond. .including those uniforms.
I feel this is a microcosmic example of why the franchise may struggle where others do not. Take Disney, you cannot compare to that studio if you have behind the scenes issues that they don't have and you don't invest in the same quality promotion others invest into.
