The Strange New Worlds Team Still Wants to Make Star Trek: Year One
If the showrunners have anything to say about it, the voyages of the starship Enterprise could continue after Star Trek: Strange New Worlds airs its last episode.
Star Trek is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, but despite reaching this impressive milestone, the franchise is in something of a holding pattern. Filming has officially wrapped on the second season of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which means that, at this precise moment, there’s no new Trek series in production, or even greenlit.
There are a lot of reasons for this that aren’t as dire as they may initially seem. Though Star Trek: Strange New Worlds wrapped production on its fifth and final season back in December, there are two seasons still to air. (Although one of them is slightly truncated.) Plus, parent network Paramount is undergoing some fairly significant changes, thanks to its recent merger with Skydance and proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. It’s very likely that Star Trek isn’t as high on their list of internal priorities as most of us would like it to be. But that doesn’t mean discussions aren’t taking place behind the scenes about the future of the franchise.
Fans have probably already heard about Star Trek: Year One, a proposed pitch that would continue the story of the U.S.S. Enterprise where Strange New Worlds is expected to leave off, following the earliest days of Captain James T. Kirk’s command. Many legacy characters from Star Trek: The Original Series are already part of the Strange New Worlds cast, including Kirk, Mr. Spock, Nyota, and Uhura, while the series finale will introduce a new Doctor McCoy and Hikaru Sulu to the group. (Heck, one season three installment has served as a quasi-TOS episode already.) The groundwork is in place, and it certainly sounds as though the folks in charge are working toward making their idea a reality.
Speaking with TrekMovie.com at the recent Saturn Awards, Strange New Worlds showrunner, Henry Alonso Myers, said that their team had officially pitched Year One to Paramount.
“We think it would be a great [show], it’s the next thing for Star Trek, we think, in the story that we’ve been telling. But it’s out of our hands,” he said. “We’ve brought them a lot. We’ve done a lot to give to them. It’s in their hands right now. They’re taking a look at it, trying to decide it. I mean, there’s a lot of love for our show over there, and obviously a lot of love for Star Trek.”
Of course, no one can predict what Paramount will choose to do, but there are some hopeful indicators. Namely, that the Enterprise sets from Strange New Worlds are still standing at CBS Stages Canada in Toronto.
“Well, our sets have not been destroyed yet. That is what I can say,” Meyers said. “That makes this the big decision for them, because it’s about, do you hold on to the sets, currently? As I said, they have not been destroyed, so we’re waiting to find out what they want to do.”
But, as with so much else about this franchise at the moment, only time will tell. After all, almost everyone involved with Star Trek: Picard pushed for a Star Trek: Legacy sequel after that series concluded back in 2023, and nothing has come of it as yet. Could the Captain Kirk factor make the difference? There is an appealing symmetry to the idea of announcing a show like Year One during such a milestone anniversary year and bringing things full circle back to the show that started it all. But will Paramount go for it? Place your bets now.