On Friday, we reported Paramount was on the verge of winning the months-long bidding war with Netflix over Warner Bros. Discovery. The deal has now been officially announced, and Paramount and Warner Bros. have outlined their vision for the emerging “next-generational global media and entertainment company.” And the Star Trek franchise got a shout-out from CEO David Ellison and in the initial official announcement.

Paramount is getting bigger, but not forgetting Star Trek

The official announcement says the newly merged company “will be well positioned to compete in the rapidly evolving entertainment industry where storytelling combined with world class technology expertise will be an important driver of value creation across the ecosystem and for shareholders.” Beyond the corporate buzzwords, Paramount promises the merger “unlocks innovative and compelling storytelling opportunities,” along with the ability to “deliver greater choice for consumers through its leading streaming platforms,” notably by combining HBO Max and Paramount+, the home of original Star Trek TV and the library of Trek films and television shows.

On a call with investors and the media today, Paramount CEO David Ellison brought up Star Trek as part of his prepared opening remarks:

“Our combined company will be home to many of the greatest, most recognizable and beloved franchises in the world, from Harry Potter to Top Gun, Star Trek to Looney Tunes, Game of Thrones to Yellowstone. This represents tremendous opportunity, and we fully intend to invest in the creative engines of both studios, making them the most sought after destination for the industry’s leading creative talent.”

While this isn’t a commitment to anything specific, all of the above franchises have current or future film and/or TV projects  in production or development.

Star Trek imagery (in background upper right) used in today’s investor call presentation

Later in this morning’s call, during a Q&A with investor media, when asked about how adding WBD franchises to the overall portfolio will impact growth plans, Ellison again brought up Star Trek:

“By bringing these two companies together, we basically have 15,000 films and 1000s of television episodes. It’s an iconic portfolio of franchises from Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, the DC Universe, Game of Thrones, Mission Impossible, Top Gun, Transformers, SpongeBob, Star Trek, I think is incredibly powerful. The combined DTC platforms [HBO Max and Paramount+] is basically 200 million subscribers… To contextualize, it’s roughly the size of Disney, obviously competitive with Amazon, competitive with Netflix. So we really do think that that really positions us to be one of the leading competitors in the DTC space, and really accelerates growth.”

Today’s presentation to investors also included some Star Trek imagery as they went through some of the details and financials behind the deal.

Star Trek imagery used in Monday’s Paramount/WBD merger call.

In addition, the official announcement released Friday afternoon highlighted “A Compelling Portfolio of IP and Content” as part of the list of strategic and financial benefits of the merger, where Star Trek got a name check:

The combined company will own a film library of more than 15,000 titles and thousands of hours of television programming. It will be home to many of the world’s most iconic and enduring franchises, including Harry Potter, Mission Impossible, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, the DC Universe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Star Trek and SpongeBob SquarePants.

Paramount is looking to close the merger by Q3 2026, but the deal faces several hurdles, primarily regulatory approval in Washington DC and Europe. There will also be some congressional scrutiny, and state attorneys general could mount their own challenges; the AG of California has already stated this is “not a done deal.” Most analysts think the process will drag into 2027 and require concessions and guarantees from Paramount, but there is already concern within both companies about layoffs and in the wider creative community over the potential impact of less competition and possibly even corporate political pressure on storytellers. Even after navigating all of that, the emerged Paramount/WBD will be saddled with significant debt.

SNW shoutouts, no mention of SFA or new movie

This is the second time Trek has worked its way into an official statements from Paramount over the last week. Shortly before the merger was announced, when announcing their 4th quarter 2025 results, they included Strange New Worlds [which wrapped up its third season in September] as one of the drivers of subscriber growth for the quarter.

[Direct To Consumer] revenue grew 10% year-over-year in Q4, fueled by 17% growth at Paramount+, and we expect acceleration into 2026, driven by continued investment in premium storytelling, including: the UFC, Marshals, The Madison, The Agency, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and more; we ended the year with 79 million paid subscribers.

The same 4th quarter report also highlighted upcoming releases for Paramount+:

Looking ahead, over the next year we will premiere new seasons of The Agency, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Lioness, MobLand, Tulsa King, as well as the third installment of Landman, whose record-breaking second season reached over 25 million subscriber households and has been a top viewed series across all of streaming since its launch in November 2025. Our momentum is exciting, and we anticipate it will carry through to 2027 as our slate really begins to fully represent the vision of our DTC leadership team.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy didn’t get mentioned in the Q4 release, but the first season dropped in January (Q1 2026) and the second season isn’t expected until 2027.

From Paramount corporate home page

The $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. will create what The Hollywood Reporter calls a “production colossus.”  The ambitious vision for the newly merged company includes committing to minimum of 30 theatrical films annually, split between Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. The Q4 announcement (again, released before the merger deal) also committed Paramount Pictures to 15+ releases in 2027, but only specifically named films from four franchises: the first Call of Duty movie and new installments from A Quiet Place, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Paranormal Activity.

Last November, Paramount scrapped development on both the Star Trek 4 Kelvin movie from producer J.J. Abrams and a “franchise origin movie” from director Toby Haynes. A new Star Trek feature film based on an original “fresh idea” from the team of Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley was announced, but there have been no developments on that since. It’s unclear how far that project is in development, but it’s clearly not far enough along to make the cut on last week’s announcement of what’s coming in 2027.

So the last week has seen Paramount acknowledging Star Trek’s contribution to the corporation and value as a franchise, but we have yet to hear any specific plans on that big “holistic” approach moving forward when it comes to new Trek TV and movies. As always, TrekMovie will continue to monitor the business side to see what could be impacting Star Trek.

Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.