Star Trek TV Shows Are Set Until 2026 Or Later, But Why Does It Feel Like The Franchise Is Failing?

Star Trek has two TV series guaranteed for the next two years, and yet it feels like the franchise is on the wane. Star Trek television was resurrected by Star Trek: Discovery in 2017, which was the first new Star Trek TV series in 12 years after Star Trek: Enterprise was canceled in 2005. Discovery's success ushered in an expansive Star Trek on Paramount+ streaming franchise, which came to boast Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Although there have been 13 Star Trek theatrical movies - and the first Star Trek made-for-streaming movie, Star Trek: Section 31, premieres January 24 on Paramount+ - Star Trek has always been fundamentally a TV franchise. Star Trek is at its best on television, which allows for the long-form storytelling needed to explore complex moral quandaries and Star Trek's massive pantheon of beloved characters.

The perceived strength of Star Trek lies not just in the quality of its TV series, but also in its quantity, after Star Trek: The Original Series in the 1960s spawned multiple spinoffs from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, starting with Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Star Trek Has TV Shows Set For The Next 2 Years

Strange New Worlds & Starfleet Academy Are Set For 2 Seasons Each

More Star Trek is coming to Paramount+, starting with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3. Strange New Worlds' hotly anticipated season 3 will arrive roughly two years after Strange New Worlds season 2, due to filming being delayed by the combined SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes in 2023. With production already completed, Strange New Worlds season 3 awaits its official 2025 release date on Paramount+. Excitingly, the streamer already renewed Star Trek: Strange New Worlds for season 4, which starts production of its next 10 episodes in early 2025 for a targeted 2026 release.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is also assured two seasons after Paramount+ renewed it while season 1 was filming. The newest Star Trek on Paramount+ series is filming both seasons back-to-back. With a stellar young cast led by Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter and Academy Award nominee Paul Giamatti playing season 1's main villain, Starfleet Academy is also loaded for bear with Star Trek legacy characters like The Doctor (Robert Picardo) from Star Trek: Voyager.

It's possible Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 could also premiere in late 2025, with season 2 in 2026, Or the two seasons could be released in 2026 and 2027. Either way, 40 hours of new Star Trek are coming.

Why It Feels Like The Star Trek Franchise Is Failing

Not Too Long Ago, We Had A Lot More Star Trek

As exciting as the prospect of both Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy may be, audiences had so much more Star Trek to enjoy just recently. In 2022 and 2023, Star Trek on Paramount+ had 5 Star Trek series on the air. 2022 was remarkable because, between all of those shows, there was a new episode of Star Trek premiering every Thursday for almost the entire year. 2023 followed with the acclaimed double shot of Star Trek: Picard season 3 and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2.

2024 was also a better year than it seemed for Star Trek. Star Trek: Discovery ended with season 5, but it went out on a high with one of its strongest efforts. Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 on Netflix and Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, also its final season, leaned into the multiverse and delivered stunningly imaginative all-time classics that showed genuine reverence for Star Trek's lore. The end of Lower Decks on Paramount+, and Netflix still not renewing Prodigy, especially stings because Star Trek animation was in a golden age, which has come to a stop.

Since 2020, there have been a minimum of three Star Trek series per year that released new episodes on Paramount+ (and on Netflix in 2024). That now drops to only one in 2025 - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 - unless Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres in late 2025. And even if it does, and Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy each have a new season in 2025 and 2026, this is still a reduction of the amount of Star Trek fans have come to expect in the current era.

Star Trek Only Had 2 Shows At A Time In The 1990s (But Today Is Different)

Two Current Seasons Of Star Trek Don't Equal One Season Of 1990s Star Trek

Star Trek: The Original Series was the lone Star Trek show (besides Star Trek: The Animated Series) until Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered in 1987. In 1993, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine premiered, followed by Star Trek: Voyager in 1995. Even after TNG jumped to feature films in 1994, there were two Star Trek series airing from 1993-1999. Two series on the air in the same year is nothing new for Star Trek, but there is a big difference between television in the 1990s and the streaming era of today.

Star Trek TV shows in the 1990s, either in syndication or on the UPN Network, were composed of 22-26 episodes each. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy seasons consist of only 10 episodes. Two seasons of a Star Trek on Paramount+ show combined still don't equal a single season of a 1990s Star Trek show. No matter what, there is simply less Star Trek today than there used to be, and many fans lament the lack of "filler" episodes that often allowed lesser-known Star Trek characters to shine or lower-stakes dilemmas to take center stage,

Star Trek Isn't Giving Fans What They Really Want

Paramount+ & Netflix's Star Trek Plans Don't Fully Align With Fan Demand

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a genuine hit with audiences while Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's cast is a compelling curio, but Star Trek fans bemoan what they feel is the franchise letting them down by not giving them what they want and have been asking for. At the top of that list is Star Trek: Legacy, Star Trek: Picard season 3's proposed spinoff about the USS Enterprise-G led by Captain Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). The fact that Paramount+ has stonewalled Star Trek: Legacy despite ardent fan support is a tremendous disappointment to audiences and the cast and creative team of Star Trek: Picard, who want to make Legacy.

Star Trek fans feel both Paramount+ and Netflix are guilty of not listening to them. Star Trek: Prodigy's fan support is so rapturous, that it got Kevin and Dan Hageman's CGI animated series picked up by Netflix in the first place. Meanwhile, audiences took time to warm up to Star Trek: Lower Decks, but it's now considered essential Star Trek, and season 5 proved that Mike McMahan's animated comedy was nowhere near ready to call it quits. Without Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Star Trek: Legacy, Star Trek's popular 24th and 25th century eras also have no shows continuing their canon.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will no doubt be met with the same fan suspicion and wariness that have greeted every new Star Trek series since Star Trek: The Next Generation. No matter how good Starfleet Academy is from the get-go, it will take time to win over doubters, especially as a spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds seasons 3 and 4 also have the high bar of seasons 1 and 2 to live up to. In truth, Star Trek continues to be healthy, and there are undoubtedly more unannounced Star Trek TV projects in development, but the franchise is also coming down from such great heights.