Star Trek faces an uncertain future at the moment, as shows that helped define its streaming renaissance end one by one, and little is known about what lies on the horizon (especially thanks to current events in our own world). So it’s perhaps fitting, then, that the one new show we do know is coming is all about welcoming a new generation back to Star Trek‘s fundamental ideals after a similar period of uncertainty: Starfleet Academy.
To close out today’s packed Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Paramount released the first trailer for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Set in the 32nd century after the events of Star Trek: Discovery, the series will follow the first new class of cadets to enroll at the titular academy in San Francisco in over a century, as the Federation rebuilds and reconnects after the cataclysmic events of “The Burn” from Discovery‘s third season.
The new trailer, aside from being packed with references to all of Star Trek history (from Academy wing names to courses on figures like Captain Sisko), introduces us to a whole host of new and familiar faces as classes begin. The series will be led by Holly Hunter, who plays Nahla Ake, the captain of the U.S.S. Athena, a long-lived half-Lanthanite (the same humanoid species as Strange New Worlds‘ Commander Pelia, played by Carol Kane) who also serves as the Academy’s chancellor.
Among the senior staff at the academy, she’ll be joined by Discovery‘s Tig Notaro and Voyager‘s Robert Picardo, reprising their roles as Jett Reno and the Emergency Medical Hologram simply known as the Doctor, respectively—they’ll also be joined in a guest star capacity by Discovery‘s Mary Wiseman and Oded Fehr as Sylvia Tilly and Admiral Vance, respectively. One new addition to the campus staff is Gina Yashere’s Lura Thok, the Athena‘s first officer as well as Starfleet Academy’s cadet master—fascinatingly, a half-Klingon, half-Jem’Hadar, the genetically engineered footsoldiers of the Dominion from Deep Space Nine.
Of course, an academy needs students, and Starfleet Academy will follow a whole host of new recruits making their way through training. Here’s the rundown:
Even if Starfleet Academy is a school-set series, Star Trek still needs a baddie, and the show will have one in the form of Paul Giamatti, cheekily and mysteriously introduced at the end of the trailer. Giamatti plays Nus Braka, a seedy gang leader (and himself another half-Klingon, this time a Klingon/Tellarite hybrid) who has some ominous connections to one of the new cadets at the academy.
The first season of Starfleet Academy is set to begin streaming on Paramount+ in early 2026. The show has already been renewed for a second season.
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Source: Gizmodo