I’m Excited About What’s Next For Star Trek

Star Trek: Discovery is over, but I'm excited for what's coming up for Star Trek. Star Trek: Discovery kicked off a new golden age for Star Trek on Paramount+. After no new Star Trek TV shows for 12 years, Star Trek: Discovery's success led to Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. In 2022, there was a new episode of Star Trek streaming on Paramount+ almost every Thursday. With Star Trek: Discovery concluded and Star Trek: Lower Decks' upcoming season 5 set to also be its final season, there will be less new Star Trek on TV, but there's still a great deal of good stuff to look forward to.

Star Trek is, undoubtedly, in a state of transition, which is a result of the uncertainty surrounding the movie and TV industries. The streaming business is changing, while Paramount, which owns Star Trek, is reportedly being sold to Skydance Media. Although Skydance, which co-produced J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond, looks to be friendly toward Star Trek as an IP and franchise, it does seem like Star Trek is on the wane with Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Discovery, and Star Trek: Lower Decks finished or about to be. Yet there is still new Star Trek being produced and in the development stages, and what's still to come has exciting possibilities.

Star Trek Has Exciting New Seasons & New Shows On The Way

Star Trek will keep taking big swings

After Star Trek: Lower Decks ends, the remaining Star Trek on Paramount+ series will be Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which are both spinoffs of Star Trek: Discovery. Strange New Worlds is already a hit with audiences and a critical darling, and the USS Enterprise-set series has already delivered classic episodes like Star Trek's first-ever musical and a comedy crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks. Strange New Worlds season 3 has wrapped filming, and its contents are top-secret. Strange New Worlds is my favorite Star Trek on Paramount+ series, and I'm dying to see season 3's new episodes. It's safe to expect the same level of "big swings" as in previous seasons. Best of all, Strange New Worlds season 4 is already greenlit to film in spring 2025, so its immediate future is assured.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is the next new Star Trek series, which begins production in fall 2024, and essentially follows up the events of Star Trek: Discovery. Starfleet Academy is the first young adult-aimed Star Trek series, but it's also the first to delve into what life is like for cadets hopeful of a career in Starfleet. Starfleet Academy offers an intriguing new perspective that will look at Star Trek through younger eyes, and it will hopefully bring a new and younger audience to Star Trek. Other cool things about Starfleet Academy are that it will be set in both San Francisco and outer space, and the show stars Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter as the Academy Chancellor. Starfleet Academy will also be a visual feast since it will film on the largest set ever constructed for Star Trek.

Possibly the upcoming Star Trek series with the most unlimited possibilities is Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 on Netflix. The next 20 episodes of the beloved, all-ages CGI animated series premiere July 1st, and Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 promises an epic intergalactic adventure involving time travel, alternate timelines, and tie-ins to every prior iteration of Star Trek.Star Trek: Voyager is especially a focus of Star Trek: Prodigy, which features the return of The Doctor (Robert Picardo) and the launching of the new Lamarr Class USS Voyager-A. Star Trek: Prodigy is perhaps the purest Star Trek of all, and it might be the grandest voyage the franchise has coming in the next few years.

Regrettably, it's coming to an end, but the irrepressible Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 is still going to deliver 10 new episodes that may even surpass the sensational prior seasons. Star Trek: Lower Decks has created some of the most endearing new Star Trek characters in years, led by Tawny Newsome's Lt. Beckett Mariner and Jack Quaid's Lt. Brad Boimler, and the USS Cerritos has become a celebration of the best (and most obscure) of Star Trek.Lower Decks proved Star Trek can be incredibly funny, and it's bound to go out with a bang. Best of all, Star Trek on Paramount+'s series are so varied and multidimensional that it's impossible to predict what we'll get from any of the series besides excellent Star Trek at their core.

Star Trek Movies Are Coming Back

In theaters and on streaming

After nearly a decade since Star Trek Beyond, I'm optimistic that Star Trek movies are finally coming back. Star Trek: Section 31, starring Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh, launches Star Trek's movies made for streaming on Paramount+ initiative, and the inside word is it's a very different type of Star Trek. I always enjoy when Star Trek takes chances, even if they don't always work, but the already announced tie-in to Star Trek's lost era and meeting legacy characters like the young Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl) sounds exciting. So does the return of Michelle Yeoh as Emperor Philippa Georgiou, one of the most fascinating characters Star Trek: Discovery ever introduced. If Section 31 is a hit, it opens the door to numerous possibilities for Star Trek streaming movies.

While I don't know what to make about Toby Haynes' Untitled Star Trek Origin movie, or how it will slot in (but hopefully not reboot) the Star Trek movie timeline, a new Star Trek movie finally hitting theaters is a win in and of itself. Meanwhile, the prospect of Star Trek 4 has become a running joke for years, but I'll certainly be there on opening night if Chris Pine's Captain Kirk reunites with the USS Enterprise crew on the big screen. I feel Star Trek works and thrives best on television, but Star Trek movies are a fun, and often influential, compliment to the TV franchise. Overall, while Star Trek is reducing the number of series on Paramount+, we're going to see an expansion of different types of Star Trek across TV and movies going into Star Trek's 60th anniversary in 2026 - and that's exciting.