Although Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has wrapped production on the entire series and sets are being torn down, the second-to-last season has yet to actually premiere. Now, announced at CCXP Mexico, we finally have a release date for the fourth season. Season four will officially premiere on Paramount+ on July 23. Like the three previous seasons, season four will run for ten episodes. The fifth and final season will consist of only six episodes. We also now have our first trailer, which showcases our very first awkward Kirk and Spock “hugging it out” moment. You can watch the first Strange New Worlds season four teaser down below:
The trailer shows plenty of space action, and some gorgeous shots of the Enterprise on her mission of discovery. There’s a moment where La’An (Christina Chong) says, “Any mission could be our last,” which is ominous, considering her character is decidedly not on Kirk’s Enterprise. Speaking of Kirk, we get to hear Paul Wesley say “Let’s boldly go,” a callback of course, to William Shatner’s iconic opening speech in the original series’ credits. (Hey Kirk, we like you and all, but this is still Pike’s ship. Wait for your turn). There’s also some horseback riding and…a dinosaur planet? Sure, why not.
Although no Star Trek series is currently in production, there is still quite a bit of Trek yet to air on Paramount+. The streamer already canceled Starfleet Academy, but season two will still air in 2027. And season five of SNW will presumably also drop its last batch of episodes that same year. SNW producers pitched a Star Trek: Year One series, focusing on Captain Kirk’s first year of the five-year mission. But with the Enterprise sets from SNW reportedly dismantled, it seems like that series likely won’t happen now. However, with Sulu and Dr. McCoy appearing in the SNW series finale, we’ll at least have TOS all queued up.
The third season of SNW was a bit all over the place. It felt like nearly half the episodes leaned on cringe comedy. Too many focused on gimmicks, and soap opera antics. It was definitely a step down from the rather excellent first two seasons, which felt like old-school Star Trek in the best ways. Here’s hoping that season four rights the ship, so to speak. We’d hate for Pike’s Enterprise captain tenure to end on a down note. We’ll find out this coming summer if season four gives us those retro Trek vibes we all love so much.