‘Star Trek’ Is Getting Two New Movies and More TV Series—What Fans Can Expect
Paramount+ charts new 'Trek' films and expands its TV lineup with 'Starfleet Academy'
For much of its existence, Star Trek has been all about rebirth, whether it was the letter-writing campaigns that saved the original series twice, the fan movement that led to 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the five direct sequels it inspired and all of those television spin-offs in the form of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise, as well as four TNG feature films.
But by 2005, all starships came to a halt and it seemed that things were over… until director/producer J.J. Abrams rebooted everything with 2009’s Star Trek — set in the “Kelvin” timeline— the success of which paved the way for two sequels, a long-promised fourth entry and the Paramount+ series Discovery, Lower Decks, Prodigy, Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy, which makes its Paramount+ streaming debut on January 15.
At the same time, for much of the last decade, the Star Trek film franchise has been stuck in a holding pattern—an occasional casting rumor here, a new writer announcement there, but cameras never rolled. Now, under the newly merged Skydance–Paramount leadership, the studio is calling Star Trek a “priority across the company,” and backing that up with not one, but two feature films in development alongside a steady stream of new television. It’s a plan designed to bring fresh stories to the screen while giving the current film crew—the Kelvin timeline cast led by Chris Pine—what’s being positioned as a proper send-off.
Stuck in drydock
Paramount’s 2009 Star Trek reboot, directed by J.J. Abrams, reimagined the original series cast in an alternate timeline—dubbed, as noted, the Kelvin timeline after the ship destroyed in its opening minutes. That film and its 2013 sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness, were box office hits. But after 2016’s Star Trek Beyond underperformed financially, plans for a fourth entry began to stall.
The first official announcement of Star Trek 4 came in 2016, with Chris Hemsworth (Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) set to reprise his role as George Kirk—Captain Kirk’s father—for a story in which he and his son would meet via a time-bending plot device. Writers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay described their script as a “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade–style” father/son adventure, with George surviving in the USS Kelvin’s systems, a concept inspired by The Next Generation episode “Relics,” featuring James Doohan in a reprisal of his original series role of Scotty. S.J. Clarkson was signed to direct.
By 2018, the project derailed when contract talks with both Pine and Hemsworth broke down over salary disagreements. Without its two Kirks, Clarkson’s version was shelved and the Kelvin timeline entered a new phase of development purgatory.
Scripts that never made it to warp
In the years since, several alternate takes have come and gone:
Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek: Working with The Revenant’s Mark L. Smith, Tarantino developed a gangster-planet concept inspired by the original series episode “A Piece of the Action.” Tarantino ultimately stepped away and the script remains unused.
Noah Hawley’s Reboot: The Fargo and Legion creator pitched a film with an all-new cast and a story reportedly involving a galaxy-wide threat. Hawley advanced to near-casting before his project was paused and later scrapped during a studio leadership change.
Matt Shakman’s Attempt — In 2021, the WandaVision and The Fantastic Four: First Steps director was attached to helm a new Kelvin timeline installment with a fresh script, but scheduling conflicts and creative shifts saw him depart in 2022.
The result of all of this was nearly a decade of “active development” without a single frame shot. Each iteration stumbled over a combination of budget disputes, director changes, corporate mergers and shifting franchise priorities.
The new plan: two films, two frontiers
Now, the roadmap is clearer. Paramount is actively developing two separate Trek features:
An Origin Story: Directed by Star Wars: Andor’s Toby Haynes, written by Seth Grahame-Smith and produced by J.J. Abrams (with Simon Kinberg also involved), this film is described as an “origin” for the Star Trek universe. Trade reports suggest it will be set decades before the events of the 2009 reboot, exploring humanity’s early encounters with alien life and the founding of Starfleet. Whether it unfolds in the Prime or Kelvin timeline has not been publicly confirmed.
The Kelvin Farewell: Marketed as the “final chapter” for the Kelvin crew, Star Trek 4 is currently being scripted by The Flight Attendant’s Steve Yockey, with Abrams producing. No director is attached yet, but the expectation is to reunite Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldaña, Karl Urban, John Cho and Simon Pegg for one last voyage.
The thinking is straightforward: use the original film to refresh and expand the universe for new audiences, while delivering closure for the cast that’s been carrying the cinematic banner since 2009.
Why now?
The catalyst is the Skydance–Paramount merger, just recently completed, with David Ellison installed as CEO. Ellison, a self-professed fan, has moved the franchise up alongside Top Gun 3 as a corporate priority. With leadership alignment, two projects in active development and an ongoing TV pipeline, there’s a coordinated push to reassert Star Trek as a major entertainment brand across both big and small screens.
‘Star Trek’ on TV
While the films languished, Star Trek flourished on television, thanks to Paramount+’s investment in multiple live-action and animated series. That momentum isn’t slowing.
Starfleet Academy: Announced in 2023 and officially greenlit in 2024, the series will be set in the 32nd century, during the era established by Star Trek: Discovery’s later seasons. Co-created by Gaia Violo, with Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau as showrunners, it stars Holly Hunter as the Academy’s chancellor and Paul Giamatti as the season’s primary antagonist. Filming begins in 2025 for January 15, 2026 premiere.. Season 2 has already been ordered, signaling confidence in the concept.
Section 31: Originally pitched as a series, the Michelle Yeoh–led project evolved into a feature-length “event film” for Paramount+. Released January 24, 2025, it follows Yeoh’s Emperor Georgiou on a covert mission that blends espionage and moral ambiguity. It seems, given how critically attacked the film was, there isn’t likely to be further installments.
Strange New Worlds: The prequel series chronicling Captain Pike’s (Anson Mount, who takes over the role originated by Jeffrey Hunter in the first Star Trek pilot) Enterprise began airing its third season in July 2025 and is in production on Season 4. The series, which will conclude with Season 5, has been a critical and fan favorite, blending episodic adventures with serialized character arcs.
Lower Decks: The animated comedy concluded its five-season run in late 2024, wrapping up its mix of irreverent humor and deep-cut Trek references.
Together, these series provide a continuous presence for the franchise, building fan engagement and expanding the canon while the films get back on track. And beyond them, there are a couple of other proposed ideas for shows out there that could come to pass.
Star Trek—Year One: Strange New Worlds co-creator and showrunner Akiva Goldsman has been gradually introducing characters that would populate the original Star Trek, including Paul Wesley as Captain Kirk, Celia Rose Gooding as Uhura, Martin Quinn as Scotty and, of course, Ethan Peck as Spock, who co-stars in the series with Anson Mount. Goldsman is trying to interest Paramount in a show that would have Kirk assume command from Pike and bridge the gap between the two series.
“Let me be very clear, it doesn’t exist,” Goldsman told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s an aspiration, [but] Strange New Worlds ends on Jim Kirk’s first day of work as captain of the Enterprise. And if we call ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’ the second pilot, there’s space and time and relationships and crew that exist, that have been untold. The untold stories of Kirk’s Enterprise. So that’s where we would love to situate the show, not really trying to delve into the continuity that we’ve seen, but in that gap between.”
Star Trek—United: Quantum Leap actor Scott Bakula portrayed Captain Jonathan Archer in the 2001-2005 series Star Trek: Enterprise,and if he and writer/producer Mike Sussman have their way, he will be re-enlisting with Starfleet. Described as a political thriller set in the formative days of the Federation, Sussman explains, “On Enterprise, we didn’t really have time to explore the formation of the Federation. The focus was on defense and saving the planet—which, of course, was vital for the story we were telling. But I believe we were going to lay the groundwork for a government and a state that would champion sentient rights, the rights of all species, really—and stand firmly for justice and equality across the galaxy. And that would ultimately lead to the establishment of the Prime Directive. We never really got to dig into all of that on Enterprise as much as I would’ve liked, and I think we definitely would have if the series had continued beyond season 4. There’s still so much to explore in that era.”
Emphasizing that right now this is a concept being pitched, Bakula adds, “There’s nothing I am going to say about United, at this point. There’s a great writer [Mike Sussman] and I have had conversations about the possibility… I’m just going to say—and we will close on that—you never know.”
The road ahead
If Paramount can maintain momentum, the next five years could see a revitalized Star Trek on two fronts: a theatrical origin story to expand the mythology, and a Kelvin finale to honor the reboot era’s cast and fans. On streaming, Starfleet Academy aims to attract younger viewers, while established hits like Strange New Worlds continue to serve long-time fans, as do the streaming possibilities for all the previous shows.
For a franchise that’s weathered more than a few bumps in its journey, the dual-track approach feels both ambitious and, if you’ll pardon the expression, logical. One path looks forward to entirely new horizons; the other ensures the current crew gets a proper curtain call. In between, Paramount+ keeps the warp core humming, proving that Star Trek’s enduring mission still resonates, nearly six decades after it first aired.
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