Honestly, it’s a weird time to be a Trekkie. If you grew up on the "Berman Era"—you know, that comfort-food stretch of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager—the current landscape feels like a fever dream. We went from a decade of total radio silence to a literal flood of content, and now, we’re watching the tide go back out. Paramount+ is tightening its belt. The "plus" in the streaming name doesn't feel quite as infinite as it used to.
But here’s the thing about star trek new shows: less might actually be more.
For a while there, it felt like Alex Kurtzman and the team at Secret Hideout were trying to throw everything at the wall. We had the dark, serialized grit of Discovery, the nostalgia-heavy (and then brilliantly rejuvenated) Picard, the wacky animated chaos of Lower Decks, and the cinematic wonder of Strange New Worlds. It was a lot. Maybe too much for a single subscription service to sustain. Now that Discovery has taken its final bow and Lower Decks is wrapping up its fifth and final season, the "New Trek" era is entering its second phase. It’s leaner. It’s more focused. And it's taking some massive creative risks that would have been unthinkable twenty years ago.
The Section 31 Pivot and the Death of the Traditional Movie
Let’s talk about Michelle Yeoh. She’s an Oscar winner now. Back when she was first cast as Philippa Georgiou in 2017, she was a massive get for a TV show, but now she’s Hollywood royalty. For years, we were promised a Section 31 series. It was stuck in development hell forever. Fans wondered if it was ever actually going to happen or if it was just a press release meant to keep stock prices steady.
Well, it’s not a show anymore. It’s a "streaming event film."
This is a huge shift in how Paramount handles star trek new shows. Instead of committing to 10 to 13 episodes of a niche spy thriller, they’re pivoting to high-budget, one-off movies. Star Trek: Section 31 wrapped filming earlier in 2024 and is slated for a 2025 release. It’s directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi and written by Craig Sweeny. The vibe? It’s not your grandfather’s Starfleet. It’s grimy. It’s about the moral gray areas that Gene Roddenberry used to hate, but fans have grown to love since DS9 first introduced the shadow organization. By turning this into a movie rather than a series, Paramount is signaling that they can’t afford to let every idea run for five seasons. They need "tentpoles" that drive weekend sign-ups.
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Starfleet Academy: The Next Big Gamble
If you think the franchise is just going to be movies from now on, you’re wrong. They are currently filming Star Trek: Starfleet Academy in Toronto. This is the big one. It’s the show that’s supposed to capture the "Young Adult" demographic, which is a terrifying prospect for some older fans.
But look at the cast. Holly Hunter is playing the Chancellor. Paul Giamatti is the lead villain.
That is serious acting muscle.
The show is set in the 32nd Century—the same era where Discovery ended. This is a smart move. It allows the writers to play in a galaxy that is still rebuilding. The Federation isn't the all-powerful monolith it once was. We’re going to see a group of cadets navigating a world that is fundamentally broken. It’s being co-run by Noga Landau and Alex Kurtzman. The set is reportedly the largest ever built for a Star Trek production, utilizing a massive version of the "AR wall" or "Volume" technology we saw in The Mandalorian.
It’s a risk. A huge one. Will Gen Z care about the Prime Directive? Hard to say. But the pedigree of the cast suggests that Paramount isn't just making "Degrassi in Space." They’re trying to build a prestige drama that happens to involve phasers and logic.
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Why Strange New Worlds is the North Star
While we wait for the star trek new shows currently in the oven, we have to acknowledge that Strange New Worlds saved the franchise's reputation with the "Old Guard." It did the impossible. It went back to the episodic format and actually made it work for modern audiences.
Anson Mount’s Pike is the ultimate "Space Dad." Ethan Peck has managed to find a version of Spock that honors Leonard Nimoy without being a karaoke impression.
The third season is coming in 2025, and a fourth has already been greenlit. This show proves that you can still do the "planet of the week" thing if the writing is sharp enough. It also proves that fans are willing to forgive a lot of continuity errors if the "vibes" are right. Remember the musical episode? Or the Lower Decks crossover? Those were massive swings. They shouldn't have worked. They were objectively ridiculous concepts on paper. But they worked because the show has earned its heart. It’s the anchor for the entire brand right now.
The Silence Surrounding Legacy and the Kelvin Timeline
There is a giant, elephant-shaped hole in the room called Star Trek: Legacy. After the third season of Picard blew the doors off the place, fans started a massive campaign for a spin-off featuring Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and the crew of the Enterprise-G.
The silence from Paramount has been deafening.
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Terry Matalas, the showrunner who saved Picard, is now busy running the Vision series for Marvel. This doesn't mean Legacy is dead, but it’s certainly not on the front burner. It’s a frustrating reality of the current streaming economy. Even a hit show with a built-in audience isn't a "sure thing" anymore when the parent company is looking to merge or sell.
Then there’s the "Origin" movie. Toby Haynes, who directed the best episodes of Andor, is attached to direct a new Star Trek film that reportedly takes place decades before the 2009 J.J. Abrams movie. It’s not Star Trek 4 with Chris Pine—that project is still in a sort of permanent limbo. This new film is meant to be an expansion of the cinematic universe. It’s a strange strategy. Do we really need an origin story for the origin story? Probably not. But with Haynes at the helm, it’s hard not to be at least a little curious.
Navigating the Future of the Trek Universe
What does this mean for you, the viewer? It means the era of "peak content" is over, and we are entering the era of "curated content." You won't have four different Trek shows running simultaneously anymore. The schedule is going to be more staggered.
- Expect more TV movies. If Section 31 is a hit, expect a Picard follow-up or a Janeway solo mission in the same format.
- Animation is in trouble. With Lower Decks ending and Prodigy moving to Netflix, the future of Trek animation is murky. It’s expensive to produce and harder to market.
- The 32nd Century is the new home base. By moving Starfleet Academy to the far future, the creators are finally stepping out of the shadow of the 23rd and 24th centuries. No more worrying about if they’re breaking a line of dialogue from a 1967 episode of the Original Series.
Your Trek Watchlist for the Next 12 Months
If you want to stay ahead of the curve, you need to focus on three specific milestones. First, finish the final season of Lower Decks. It’s a love letter to the fans, and rumors suggest it sets up some major lore for the future. Second, keep an eye out for the Section 31 trailer toward the end of the year. It’s going to set the tone for the "movie-fication" of the franchise. Finally, watch the casting announcements for Starfleet Academy. The names being added to that roster are a direct indicator of how much budget Paramount is actually putting behind their flagship shows.
The franchise isn't dying. It’s just molting. It’s shedding the excess weight of the early streaming wars and trying to find a sustainable way to live long and prosper in a world where "content" is no longer free-flowing. It’s a smaller galaxy, sure. But it’s still worth exploring.