The Star Trek universe warped into SDCC this weekend, and dropped a load of news and content for fans including a new show in development, some trailers and a bunch of casting announcements! Here is everything Trek-related revealed at their panel.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Season 3
We’ll start things off with a fun clip from Season 3 of the brilliant ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘. It seems that for an away mission, the crew of the Enterprise need to become Vulcan. Handly, they have a serum for that, thanks to Spock becoming (briefly) fully human last season. But, of course, things don’t exactly go to plan… The clip also gives us another look at Scotty (Martin Quinn) who we last saw in the Season 2 finale, on the Enterprise crew.
A new bit of casting announced at the panel was Cillian O’Sullivan (In From The Cold, Then You Run) who takes on the legacy role of Dr. Roger Korby, a character first introduced in ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’ (portrayed by Michael Strong). Korby was a professor the ex-fiancée of Christine Chapel, who ended up having his consciousness transferred into an android body after being badly injured on a planet with an ancient android civilization (although, all of that is in his future in the show’s timeline.) O’Sullivan will be a recurring guest star in the upcoming season.
Star Trek: Lower Decks, Season 5
The first trailer (as opposed to a clip) is for the 5th and final season of the fantastic ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks‘, and we also have a premiere date – Thursday, 24th October 2024 on Paramount+ US and worldwide. It will premiere with two episodes.
In Season 5, the crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos is tasked with closing “space potholes” — subspace rifts which are causing chaos in the Alpha Quadrant. Pothole duty would be easy for Jr. Officers Mariner, Boimler, Tendi and Rutherford… if they didn’t also have to deal with an Orion war, furious Klingons, diplomatic catastrophes, murder mysteries and scariest of all — their own career aspirations. This upcoming season is a celebration of this underdog crew who are dangerously close to being promoted out of the lower decks and into strange new Starfleet roles.
The Starfleet crew residing in the “lower decks” of the U.S.S. Cerritos includes the voices of Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, and Eugene Cordero; the Bridge crew is voiced by Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O’Connell, Fred Tatasciore, and Gillian Vigman.
Star Trek: Section 31
The next trailer is for the much talked about ‘Star Trek: Section 31‘ movie, slated to premiere in early 2025.
The film stars Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh who reprises her fan-favourite role as Emperor Philippa Georgiou — a character she played in Star Trek: Discovery’s first season — who joins a secret division of Starfleet. Tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets, she also must face the sins of her past.
‘Star Trek: Section 31’ also stars Omari Hardwick (Power), Kacey Rohl (Hannibal), Emmy winner Sam Richardson (Ted Lasso), Sven Ruygrok (One Piece), Robert Kazinsky (Pacific Rim), Humberly Gonzalez (Ginny & Georgia), and James Hiroyuki Liao (Barry).
One new bit of casting announced at the panel was Miku Martineau (Kate), who plays a young Philippa Georgiou and is featured in the trailer.
Written by Craig Sweeny and directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, ‘Star Trek: Section 31’ is executive produced by Alex Kurtzman, Craig Sweeny, Aaron Baiers, Olatunde Osunsanmi, Frank Siracusa, John Weber, Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth, and Michelle Yeoh and is produced by CBS Studios in association with Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment.
Starfleet Academy
Next, we come to the new series, ‘Starfleet Academy‘, and a whole bunch of casting news. ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ will follow the adventures of a new class of Starfleet cadets as they come of age in one of the most legendary places in the galaxy. The series will introduce viewers to this young group of cadets as they come together to pursue a common dream of hope and optimism. Under the watchful and demanding eyes of their instructors, they will discover what it takes to become Starfleet officers as they navigate blossoming friendships, explosive rivalries, first loves and a new enemy that threatens both the Academy and the Federation itself.
All images provided by Paramount..
Cast previously announced included Holly Hunter as the captain and chancellor of Starfleet Academy; Paul Giamatti as the first season’s antagonist, a man with an ominous past connected to one of the Academy’s cadets; And British comedian and actor Gina Yashere (Bob Hearts Abishola) as an Academy instructor in a recurring guest star role.
They also previously announced the cadets joining the series – Kerrice Brooks, Bella Shepard, George Hawkins, Karim Diané and Zoë Steiner. No new information on them, but they did show a fun little reaction video to them getting told they where cast in the show:
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The new bit of casting announced at the panel was for a number of legacy characters who will be returning to their previous roles. They include Tig Notaro as Jett Reno, Oded Fehr as Admiral Vance, and Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly, who all previously appeared in ‘Star Trek: Discovery’. They are joined by Robert Picardo who reprises his role as The Doctor from ‘Star Trek: Voyager’, and who recently reprised the role (in voice form) for ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Season 2.
All images provided by Paramount.
Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau serve as co-showrunners and executive produce the series alongside executive producers Gaia Violo, Aaron Baiers, Olatunde Osunsanmi, Jenny Lumet, Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth, Frank Siracusa and John Weber. The series’ premiere episode is written by Gaia Violo. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is produced by CBS Studios in association with Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.
New Star Trek Live-Action Comedy
One last thing… While there isn’t a huge amount of info about this project, there is a new live-action comedy set in the ‘Star Trek’ universe in development from ‘Lower Decks’ star Tawny Newsome, and ‘Dear White People’s Justin Simien. What we do know is that it centres on some Federation Outsiders who are serving a gleaming resort planet, only to find out their day-to-day exploits are being broadcast to the entire quadrant.
Simien, Newsome and Trek boss Alex Kurtzman will write and executive produce the series, with Aaron Baiers, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth. CBS Studios is producing the show. We do stress that this is “in development” though, so might not go to series.
