Paramount quietly released a statement today saying that they will be returning to releasing Blu-ray titles once again. Beyond the fact that they state that they are pleased that the HD format war has ended and they think that it is good for the consumer, they did not release any specific details beyond saying that they will monitor the adoption rate of consumers and plan the release of titles accordingly.

What Paramount did not say is if they will continue to move forward with the HD DVD tiles that have already been announced, including some eagerly awaited titles like the Jack Ryan Box Set, Sweeney Todd, and There Will Be Blood.

Perhaps the bigger issue is the fact that the HD DVD box sets of Season 2 and 3 of Star Trek the Original Series, which was an HD DVD exclusive, has been quietly cancelled according to a variety of sources that we have been in contact with. Our sources are telling us that Toshiba was helping underwrite the cost of converting all of the Star Trek the Original Series to HD DVD. With Seasons 2 and 3 being canceled, will Paramount offer some sort of trade up to the Blu-ray version? Besides being a bit over priced, we can imagine that some Star Trek fans will be unhappy to learn that they have invested in Season 1 and will not be able to finish the set with Seasons 2 and 3. This could be quite an unpleasant and bad PR situation for Paramount.

We suspect that Paramount will release some additional details when they have had some additional time to flesh out their plans and get a better handle on where they will go from here.