For nearly sixty years, the Star Trek franchise has been thriving on both TV and film. But it has especially flourished in the streaming era, with the Paramount+ shows of Star Trek: Discovery in 2017 and Star Trek: Picard in 2020. Discovery and Picard are both done now. So where does that leave the franchise going into the immediate future? Here is the current status of every Star Trek TV series and movie.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
This sequel to Discovery (but a prequel to the original series) features Anson Mount as Captain Pike, telling the adventures of the starship Enterprise in the days before Kirk was her captain. It’s been a very popular show with Trek fans, perhaps more than any other modern-day Trek show. Its third season debuts early in 2025. It has already been renewed for a season four, set to film early next year, probably for a 2026 release.
Star Trek: Lower Decks
Another beloved show by the fandom is the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks, which premiered in 2020. Telling the adventures of the junior officers on board the Cerritos, its upcoming fifth season will sadly be its last one. The last season of the adventures of the “least important ship in all of Starfleet” premieres on Paramount+ on October 24.
Star Trek: Prodigy
Originally conceived as co-production between Nickelodeon and Paramount+, Prodigy is an animated series set in the 24th century timeframe after the events of Star Trek: Voyager. It aired its first season on Paramount+, but then they canceled the show after one year. Netflix picked up the nearly completed second season, where it’s currently streaming. We’ll see if the numbers were solid enough for a third season of new adventures for the young crew of the U.S.S. Protostar.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
After many years of rumors, a Starfleet Academy series is currently shooting. The show is another spin-off of Discovery, taking place in its 32nd-century timeframe. Headlining the series is Holly Hunter, as Captain and commandant of the Academy. Paul Giamatti joins her as the show’s lead villain, and several fresh faces as the new class of Starfleet cadets. Starfleet Academy has an eye on a 2025 release date on Paramount+.
Star Trek: Section 31
Originally intended as a series, plans changed after its star Michelle Yeoh won an Academy Award and her schedule got very busy. Now, Star Trek: Section 31 has become a film, focusing on Yeoh’s character from Discovery, the former Mirror Universe Empress Phillipa Georgiou. In Trek lore, Section 31 is the secret branch of the Federation, which does all of Starfleet’s off-the-books operations. Some of which are very shady. We expect this film to drop on Paramount+, sometime in 2025.
Untitled Star Trek Comedy Series
Announced at Comic-Con 2024, a Star Trek live-action comedy series is coming from Tawny Newsome and Justin Simien. Newsome famously plays Mariner on Lower Decks while Simien wrote Dear White People and directed last year’s Haunted Mansion. The premise of the show will center on “Federation Outsiders” serving on “a gleaming resort planet.” They eventually learn all of their exploits are entertainment for the entire quadrant. No production or release date is known for this series as of yet.
Star Trek Prequel Film
Toby Haynes, who directed episodes of Andor, will direct this newest Trek film, with screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith providing the script. It’s supposedly about humanity’s first contact with aliens, which leads to the Star Trek future. It will not be called First Contact though, that name is taken. Paramount has released no production start date or release window. They intend for this film to get a theatrical release, but it’s not the only Star Trek feature in the pipeline.
Star Trek 4 (a.k.a. Star Trek 14)
One more film starring the crew of J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot, with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto as Kirk and Spock once more, has been in the planning stages for the better part of eight years. It has gone through many writers, and at least three directors, since they first announced it after 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. The latest information says that Paramount has hired Steve Yockey, the co-creator of Max’s series The Flight Attendant, to write the screenplay. Paramount intends this film as the final chapter of the Kelvin timeline series.
Star Trek: Legacy
This one was never officially announced, but fans have been begging for it all the same. When Star Trek: Picard ended after its incredibly popular third season, showrunner Terry Matalas left the final episode setting up a new series that would continue the adventures of the newly christened Enterprise-G, with Captain Seven of Nine in command. He even revealed the name of the series — Star Trek: Legacy. The cast wants to do it, Terry Matalas wants to do it, and everyone is just waiting for Paramount to pull the trigger.
