Looks Like Star Trek: Starfleet Academy May Be Released Sooner Than We Thought
One of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's stars may have leaked the release date of the new show.
Most Trekkies know that producers have been wanting to do a Star Trek series about Starfleet Academy for decades. While some of these projects turned into a toy line or the 2009 Star Trek reboot, it wasn’t until Paramount gave the green light to the upcoming series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy that we realize the long wait was coming to an end. In fact, it might be coming to an end very soon.
Yesterday on her Instagram, actor Gina Yashere posted a picture of her character Lura Thok, a mixed-race Klingon and Jem’Hadar member of Starfleet. Yashere praises the prosthetic department on the show for creating Lura Thok’s unique look, and closed the post with an interesting tidbit. While the post now ends with “See you early 2026,” the original post (via Screenrant) read “See you January 2026.”
Obviously, someone from Paramount probably asked Yashere to revise her post, as no official release date has been released. But a January release does make a lot of sense, as production completed in February of this year and the first trailer for the show dropped in July. Furthermore, with nothing but the preschool-focused Star Trek: Scouts currently on TV and fans still grumbling about the end of Strange New Worlds‘s disappointing third season, it would make sense for Paramount to get new material out sooner rather than later.
Still, Starfleet Academy faces a skeptical fan base. As much as producers wanted a show about youngsters making their first steps into Starfleet, fans have recently expressed more desire for a show like Star Trek: Legacy, which continues to explore the galaxy after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis and the third season of Picard. Furthermore, Starfleet Academy takes place in the 32nd century, the setting of Discovery, which remains a controversial effort.
That said, Starfleet Academy does have a compelling cast, including Holly Hunter as Captain Nahla Ake, Robert Picardo reprising his role as the Doctor from Voyager and Prodigy, and Paul Giamatti as the half-Tellurite/half-Klingon villain.
Will this strong cast be enough to get Trekkies excited about Starfleet Academy? Or will the show prove to be of interest to producers and no one else? Sounds like we won’t have to wait much longer to find out.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy releases early 2026 to Paramount+.
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Joe George’s writing has appeared at Slate, Polygon, Tor.com, and elsewhere!