Production on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 5 is well underway. The fifth season will mark the end of the Paramount+ series that follows the adventures of Captain Christopher Pike and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise before Captain James T. Kirk takes over the center seat.
In an interview with TV Insider, the cast and crew of Strange New Worlds opened up about what fans may expect as the series heads toward its inevitable end. Melissa Navia, who plays Erica Ortegas in Strange New Worlds, said working on the fifth and final season of the show is “bittersweet.”
“There’s so much of our show that still has yet to come out that it doesn’t feel like an ending,” added Celia Rose Gooding, who plays Nyota Uhura. “We’ll be talking about Strange New Worlds until they send a cease and desist, so it’s never-ending. I feel like this is family, this team, we have a camaraderie that is pretty eternal. I think the legacy that we’re leaving and the one that we’re continuing to establish is something that I don’t think you ever have to say goodbye to,” Gooding added.
Star Trek fans know that the end of Strange New Worlds likely means that the show could delve into the accident that leaves Captain Pike in a wheelchair. Pike, in order to save Starfleet cadets, risks his life and winds up severely injured. Co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman touched on the fact that Pike’s future is already known, saying of Anson Mount’s character, “We try to let Pike live in the moment. Obviously, as we approach the terminal date for him, it starts to inform the stories a little bit more frequently.”
“But I do think that like everybody else who suffers impending doom, which in some ways is all of us, he manages to survive by being connected to the people around him, to the mission, to the crew,” Goldsman said.
Fans of Strange New Worlds still have Season 4 and 5 to look forward to, but that hasn’t stopped Goldsman and co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers from talking about the future of Trek once the show ends. Goldsman and Myers have both stated it is their “dream” to make a Strange New Worlds spinoff that would focus on Kirk’s first year as the captain of the Enterprise.
Strange New Worlds Showrunners Tease Spinoff Series
Captain Pike in the chair on the bridge with Spock in the background from Star Trek Strange New WorldsImage via Paramount
“Honestly, I think we have no idea, in fairness,” said Goldsman in September when asked about whether a show, dubbed Star Trek: Year One, could ever come to fruition. “I mean, I think that clearly we would be thrilled to do it, and ultimately, we are renting, we don’t own. And so it’s the people who own the building, which is now, it’s different landlords, so we’ll see what they think, and if so, great, but we’re building out our show to end, so really, we’re completing our five-year mission after Season 5,” he said.
“And then if there’s more to do, serendipity, but if not, we’re going to make sure that we did it as well as we knew how and closed it out as elegantly and correctly as we believe we can,” Goldsman added.
Two stars of Strange New Worlds have already expressed interest in a spinoff series. Ethan Peck, who plays Spock, and Paul Wesley, who plays Kirk, would both love a spinoff. “I think it would be really wonderful,” Peck said about a Year One spinoff. “I will stay playing this character as long as I’m invited, for the most part, because I just think it’s such an amazing thing to be a part of. The messaging is so incredible, and this character has so much integrity. He’s such a noble person, so I love portraying him,” he added.
“I would love nothing more than to do a Kirk series along with our beloved characters in TOS and introduce characters that we have yet to introduce in TOS, Chekov and Sulu, and, I mean, you name it. And I think it would be fantastic,” Wesley said. “Speaking as a little kid who wants to play in a series, I think there’s so much room to explore, and I think you can go into the TOS sort of time. You can explore time between episodes. You can explore time before the first episode. There’s just so much story to be mined here, and I would love nothing more than to play in that series,” he added.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ first three seasons are streaming on Paramount+. A premiere date for Season 4 has not been announced.
Release Date
May 5, 2022
Network
Paramount+
Showrunner
Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman
Anson Mount
Captain Christopher Pike
