Starfleet Academy: Everything we know about the upcoming Star Trek series starring Paul Giamatti

Last Updated on November 19, 2024

What Do We Know About the upcoming series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy? More thank you may think. The Paramount+ original series will be the latest edition of the Star Trek universe and the first sequel series of Star Trek Discovery. With casting announcements, rumors, and more, we know a lot of what is to come. So, let’s jump in!

The series is set in the 32^nd Century.

The twelfth Star Trek series since Gene Roddenberry’s original CBS show debuted in 1966, Starfleet Academy is the sixth small screen entry in the franchise since the debut of Discovery in 2017. Overseen by franchise-runner Alex Kurtzman, the new series was co-created with Noga Landau, who created the four-season-long Nancy Drew series for The CW. In development since Kurtzman’s original deal with CBS back in 2018, the series has gone through many iterations and timelines before settling on the future setting used since Discovery’s third season. Writers on the series include Gaia Volo and Lower Decks star Tawny Newsome. Newsome is the first Star Trek actor hired for a staff writing position in franchise history.

New stars and Trek veterans will lead the cast.

While the series is set a thousand years after the familiar eras of James Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard, Starfleet Academy is bringing back familiar faces from beyond just Star Trek: Discovery. While Discovery veterans like Mary Wiseman, Tig Notaro, and Oded Fehr will appear in their respective roles as Sylvia Tilly, Jett Reno, and Admiral Charles Vance, the new series is bringing back The Doctor, the holographic creation from Star Trek: Voyager, who Robert Picardo will once again play. The series will also feature Gina Yashere as an instructor with the young cadets played by Kerrice Brooks, Bella Shepard, George Hawkins, Karim Diané, and Zoë Steiner. Discovery star Doug Jones has voiced his desire to appear in the series and may guest star at some point.

Paul Giamatti plays the villain, with Tatiana Maslany and Holly Hunter in key roles.

The big names attached to the series include Holly Hunter, who will portray the Chancellor of Starfleet Academy, and She-Hulk: Attorney At Law star Tatiana Maslany in an unidentified guest role. The big name attached to the series is Oscar-nominated actor Paul Giamatti, who plays the first season’s main antagonist. Alex Kurtzman initially approached Giamatti during the actor’s promotional rounds for 2023’s The Holdovers, during which he proclaimed his love for all things Star Trek and his desire to play a Klingon. Kurtzman gave Giamatti his roles in the new series, but details remain under wraps.

The series will not be about space exploration.

If the title does not give it away, Starfleet Academy will focus on the recruits to the new school to train cadets for the United Federation of Planets branches. Following the cadets from new recruits through graduation, the series will be set after the cataclysmic event forced Starfleet to regroup and start over from scratch. Early in 2024, production designer Matthew Davies oversaw the building of the set for Starfleet Academy’s atrium, the largest set ever built for a Star Trek series. Filling 45,900 square feet of the biggest soundstage in Canada, the atrium set is two stories tall and boasts a mess hall, amphitheater, multiple classrooms, catwalks, trees, and a view of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

Season two is already greenlit.

Despite being slowed by the 2023 Writer’s Guild and Actor’s Guild strikes, Starfleet Academy began production in August 2024 with Alex Kurtzman helming the first two episodes and Discovery director Olatunde Osunsanmi. Jonathan Frakes was offered the chance to helm an episode but could not do so due to a personal conflict. Frakes did express a desire to direct a season two episode, which may happen as Paramount has already greenlit a second season of the series. The first season is set to include ten episodes, keeping the content focused on a main narrative, which Tawny Newsome said will be about the younger generation, a tone and approach vastly different to any Trek project to date outside of the animated series Prodigy.

Starfleet Academy will premiere no earlier than the end of 2025.

Production on the first season of Starfleet Academy is underway, with Kurtzman stating he expected to helm his entries in October. Because the series is in front of cameras right now, it seems highly unlikely to be done with visual effects and post-production until well into the new year. Paramount still has the already filmed third season of Strange New Worlds and the Michelle Yeoh-led film Section 31 ready to premiere in 2025, so it is possible they may save Starfleet Academy until early 2026. Still, we likely will not know more until September 2025 during the annual Star Trek Day celebration.

Stay tuned to JoBlo.com as we learn more about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and your other favorite shows. What do you expect to see in the upcoming season of Starfleet Academy? Let us know in the comments, click like, and subscribe to follow all our latest original videos.