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‘Star Trek’ Cast, Including Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, Returning for Fourth Film

By Adam B. Vary

Adam B. Vary

Senior Entertainment Writer

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They’re boldly going back.

Paramount is planning to enter negotiations for “ Star Trek ” stars Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto , Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho and Simon Pegg to return to the Enterprise for their fourth tour of duty in the venerable sci-fi franchise.

The announcement was made by J.J. Abrams during the Paramount Investors Day Presentation on Feb. 15.

“We are thrilled to say that we are hard at work on a new ‘Star Trek’ film that will be shooting by the end of the year that will be featuring our original cast and some new characters that I think are going to be really fun and exciting and help take ‘Star Trek’ into areas that you’ve just never seen before,” Abrams said. “We’re thrilled about this film, we have a bunch of other stories that we’re talking about that we think will be really exciting, so can’t wait for you to see what we’re cooking up. But until then, live long and prosper.”

The six actors first stepped into their respective iconic roles as Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Bones, Sulu and Scotty in 2009’s “Star Trek,” directed by Abrams, which reset the “Trek” timeline and allowed for the reboot to exist unencumbered from the hundreds of hours of “Trek” continuity that had come before. The actors returned in two sequels, 2013’s “Star Trek Into Darkness,” also directed by Abrams, and 2016’s “Star Trek Beyond,” directed by Justin Lin.

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Abrams is producing the new, as-yet-untitled film through Bad Robot, with Matt Shakman (“WandaVision”) directing from a screenplay by Josh Friedman (“Avatar 2”) and Cameron Squires (“WandaVision”) based on a earlier draft by Lindsey Beer (“Sierra Burgess Is a Loser”) and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (“Captain Marvel”).

Paramount was close to bringing back this cast once before: In 2018, S.J. Clarkson (“Jessica Jones”) had signed up to direct a sequel that would have reunited Pine’s Kirk with his late father, played by Chris Hemsworth reprising his performance from the 2009 “Star Trek.” That film never materialized, however, after Paramount reportedly couldn’t close a deal with Pine and Hemsworth.

Since then, insiders say the studio has done market research to determine audience interest in the rebooted cast, given the long wait period between “Beyond” — which lost money for Paramount — and a prospective new “Trek” film. Execs determined that there was still lasting audience enthusiasm for Pine, Quinto and the rest of the cast in their established roles, which allowed the studio to feel comfortable with moving forward with bringing them back.

Paramount has also explored several other avenues for “Trek” features, none of which seem to have ultimately borne fruit. Quentin Tarantino reportedly cooled on a “Star Trek” script he was pursuing with “The Revenant” screenwriter Mark L. Smith. In late 2019, Paramount tapped “Fargo” and “Legion” creator Noah Hawley to write and direct a “Trek” movie that Hawley planned to feature new actors playing new characters. But when Emma Watts became president of the Paramount Motion Picture Group a few months later, insiders say she paused all “Trek” development, including Hawley’s film , to decide how best to move forward with one of the studio’s crown jewel franchises. With Watts’ departure from Paramount in September, it’s unclear what the current “Trek” film portends for other development for the franchise, including a screenplay by “Fear the Walking Dead” co-executive producer Kalinda Vazquez .

Bringing the 2009 “Trek” cast back could prove a challenge given they’ve all had busy schedules since “Beyond.” Pine added the “Wonder Woman” franchise to his resume and he’ll next appear in Olivia Wilde’s thriller “Don’t Worry Darling” and the black-ops film “Violence of Action.” Quinto headlined the AMC series “NOS4A2,” and starred in the Broadway revival of “The Boys in the Band” and its 2020 Netflix film adaptation. Saldana continued her run as Gamora in several Marvel Studios films, including “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” and “Avengers: Endgame”; she’ll star in “Avatar 2” this year and in “Guardians Vol. 3” in 2023. Urban appeared in 2017’s “Thor: Ragnarok” and he’ll continue his performance as Billy Butcher on Season 3 of Amazon’s “The Boys” in June. Cho starred in acclaimed indies “Columbus” and “Searching,” and he starred in Netflix’s live-action adaption of the anime series “Cowboy Bebop.” And Pegg starred with Nick Frost on Amazon’s horror comedy series “Truth Seekers,” and he’ll reprise his role as Benji in “Mission: Impossible 7” in 2023.

One member of the 2009 “Trek” cast, however, sadly cannot join them. Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov, died in an accident in June 2016, a month before “Beyond” opened in theaters. At that film’s premiere at San Diego Comic Con, the cast, filmmakers and invited guests sat in a full minute of silence in tribute to the late actor.

Brent Lang contributed to this story.

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The event will stream live and feature cast and crew from all five Paramount+ Star Trek series, including Discovery, Strange New Worlds, Picard, Lower Decks and Prodigy.

Star Trek Day 2021, streaming September 8th

To celebrate the 55th anniversary of Star Trek premiering on television, Paramount+ is hosting a live stream that promises in-person conversations with cast and crew from throughout the Star Trek franchise, surprise announcements, and “legacy moments” with well-known cast members.

The celebration consists of 13 panels emanating live from the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, California, hosted by Wil Wheaton and Mica Burton on  Paramount+  and  Paramount+’s Twitch page and will be available on-demand through  Paramount+’s YouTube Channel after its initial airing. All panels focus on various Star Trek TV shows and cast interviews.

The celebration runs on September 8th starting at 8:30 p.m. ET. / 5:30 p.m. PT and is expected to run for about two and a half hours.

Announcement video

Current and future Star Trek shows will have a major presence at the event. Some of the cast and crew of the upcoming animated show Star Trek: Prodigy will “give fans an update” on what to expect from the show. The Star Trek: Strange New Worlds panel will feature Anson Mount (Captain Pike), Rebecca Romijn (Number One), and Ethan Peck (Spock), along with some creative minds from that show. Star Trek: Picard will be well-represented, with Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), and Isa Briones (Soji Asha) joining the panel. Star Trek: Discovery ‘s Wilson Cruz (Doctor Hugh Culber), Blu del Barrio (Adira Tal), and Ian Alexander (Gray Tal) will talk about the upcoming season of their show, and Noel Wells (Tendi) and Eugene Cordero (Rutherford) will represent Star Trek: Lower Decks with creator Mike McMahan .

Star Trek Day 2021 Lineup

• STAR TREK: PRODIGY,  with series voice cast including Brett Gray and Dee Bradley Baker, along with executive producers Kevin and Dan Hageman and co-executive producer/director, Ben Hibon.
• STAR TREK: DISCOVERY , with series stars Wilson Cruz, Blu del Barrio and Ian Alexander and co-showrunner and executive producer Michelle Paradise.
• STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS , with series stars Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn and Ethan Peck, who will be joined by co-showrunners and executive producers Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers. 
• STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS , with voice cast members Noël Wells and Eugene Cordero alongside series creator, showrunner and executive producer Mike McMahan.
• STAR TREK: PICARD , with series stars Patrick Stewart and Jeri Ryan, co-showrunner and executive producer Akiva Goldsman and a special live performance from Isa Briones, singing “Blue Skies,” which was featured in the Picard season one finale. 
• RODDENBERRY LEGACY PANEL , featuring a conversation with Gene Roddenberry’s son and the CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment, Rod Roddenberry, alongside Gates McFadden (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”), LeVar Burton (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”) and George Takei (“Star Trek: The Original Series”), as they discuss the “Star Trek” creator’s indelible impact on science fiction and culture.

The “legacy moments” portion of the event will feature the following iconic Star Trek cast members:

• Cirroc Lofton from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
• Anthony Montgomery from Star Trek: Enterprise
• Garrett Wang from Star Trek: Voyager
• George Takei from Star Trek: The Original Series
• LeVar Burton from Star Trek: The Next Generation

Strange New Worlds logo revealed

The announcement video also gave us our first look at what appears to be the logo for the upcoming Star Trek: Strange New Worlds series, starring Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn and Ethan Peck.

The aforementioned “legacy moments” involve intimate conversations with certain actors, such as Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko from Deep Space Nine ), Anthony Montgomery (Travis Mayweather from Enterprise) , Garrett Wang (Harry Kim from Voyager ), George Takei (Sulu from The Original Series ), and LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge from The Next Generation ).

Stay tuned to TrekNews.net for all the latest news on Star Trek: Discovery , Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , Star Trek: Picard , Star Trek: Lower Decks , Star Trek: Prodigy , and more.

You can follow us on Twitter , Facebook , and Instagram .

Kyle Hadyniak has been a lifelong Star Trek fan, and isn't ashamed to admit that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek: Nemesis are his favorite Star Trek movies. You can follow Kyle on Twitter @khady93 .

Fred Ellis jr

September 9, 2021 at 10:19 am

I have been a star trek fan since day 1 I’m now 67 years old and have lots of things from that time even things to never to be seen again even the pilot of capt pike

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Catching Up With ‘Star Trek,’ the Quiet Franchise

Marvel and “Star Wars” make more noise, but “Trek” cruises along with five current series. (Pro tip: Don’t sleep on the animated shows.)

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By Mike Hale

“Star Trek” got a head start in the television-universe game. Four series, beginning with “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” came out in succession and ran almost continuously from 1988 to 2005, well before the current iterations of the Marvel and “Star Wars” TV empires were in place.

And then — nothing. A 12-year hiatus, during which Marvel got into TV with “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and Lucasfilm established its modern TV beachhead with the animated “Clone Wars” stories.

“Star Trek” series began to reappear with “Discovery” in 2017, and there are now five continuing shows, the most the franchise has had at one time and — depending on what you count as a series, and how you define continuing — probably more than either of its main competitors. But it still feels as if “Star Trek” were trying to catch up. Outside its loyal fan base, its shows don’t draw a lot of attention. Did you know that a new season of “Star Trek: Lower Decks” premiered on Thursday? Didn’t think so.

And that’s too bad, because the post-“Discovery” shows, all streaming on Paramount+, embody some of the charms that have always made “Star Trek” a happy sci-fi indulgence. The live-action series — “Star Trek: Picard” and the newest, “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” — promulgate the cosmic benevolence and earnest philosophizing that characterize the “Star Trek” universe without taking themselves too seriously or getting too tiresome (although “Picard,” in its recent second season, skirted the line). The animated series — “Lower Decks” and “Star Trek: Prodigy” — take franchise conventions and move them, affectionately and cleverly, outside the starship command structure where they usually reside.

And under the stewardship of the producer Alex Kurtzman, the “Trek” lineup feels less engineered, less fine tuned, than those of the competition. There’s a calculation to the Marvel and “Star Wars” portfolios — an effort to appear edgy while alienating as few fans as possible — that can make watching the latest series seem like a mandatory school assignment. The throw-it-at-the-wall diversity of the “Trek” shows (which, of course, may be just as carefully calculated) makes each series feel more approachable, if less of a designated “must see.”

“Discovery,” whose story has time-traveled 900 years past the events of the original “Star Trek” series, is the veteran of the group at four seasons and counting. But “Strange New Worlds,” whose first season ended in July and was tremendously popular with the faithful, is the real standard-bearer. It’s the apotheosis of the packaged-nostalgia business these franchises represent: bringing back a character who had become a TV footnote, “Worlds” essentially recycles the original show’s formula, shame-free.

Anson Mount plays Christopher Pike, who was captain of the Starship Enterprise in the unaired original pilot of the first “Star Trek” series and is brought back as the captain in “Worlds,” set a decade before. (Mount played Pike as captain of the U.S.S. Discovery in Season 2 of “Discovery.”) Younger versions of iconic characters like Spock (Ethan Peck) and Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) are on board; James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley), Pike’s eventual replacement, makes a guest appearance in a time-travel story line. There is a broad arc involving Pike’s knowledge (gleaned in a Klingon temple during an earlier season of “Discovery”) of how he may die, but “Worlds,” like the original, is strongly episodic, with the Enterprise finding trouble weekly at different planets or space stations or nebulae.

As you would expect, “Worlds” mirrors the original show’s weaknesses and strengths. The utopian ideas don’t run deep, and the dialogue expounding on them can be stiff at best, turgid at worst. The performances are serviceable, reflecting the one-dimensionality of the characters.

But the space adventure is solid, and there’s a goofball audacity that is familiar and appealing. The aliens and brigands still look like summer-stock extras, and the cannon fodder among the junior officers can still be discerned a mile off. A high point of the season was an episode in which the crew thought they were characters in a children’s fantasy book, and the cast got to ham it up even more than usual. The battle scenes still embody the foundational “Star Trek” idea that you can save the universe by sitting at a desk and typing. (Sadly, Pike’s engage-the-warp-drive catchphrase, “Hit it,” is the franchise’s lamest.)

“Picard,” which fetishizes Patrick Stewart’s performance as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in “The Next Generation” to the same degree that “Worlds” emulates the original series, started off with a noirish style and texture that set it apart. But its second season, predicated on the irritatingly omnipotent “Next Generation” antagonist Q, was a regression.

Which leads to a proposition that may not sit well with old-school ‘Trek” fans but is borne out by the evidence: The most adventurous and engaging work currently being done in the franchise is in the two half-hour animated series, the heart-on-its-sleeve children’s adventure “Prodigy” and the raunchy adult sitcom “Lower Decks.”

“Prodigy,” whose first season ran this past winter, is rendered in dark, tactile, fast-moving 3-D animation that feels far outside the “Trek” canon. (The show was created by Dan and Kevin Hageman, known for the Lego series “Ninjago” and their work on the DreamWorks series “Trollhunters.”) It adopts a definitively outsider point of view: A derelict starship is commandeered by a group of nonhuman escapees from a prison colony, who are taught to pilot the ship and instilled with Starfleet values by a holographic drill sergeant in the form of Captain Janeway from “Star Trek: Voyager” (voiced by the original performer, Kate Mulgrew).

Hologram Janeway’s lectures are smart franchise management, constituting a crash course in “Star Trek” basics for young viewers. Older fans can enjoy them, too, and will get even more enjoyment out of episodes like the inevitable Kobayashi Maru training-exercise homage, which includes the recorded voices of the original-series cast members James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols and Leonard Nimoy.

“Lower Decks,” whose third season will continue to arrive through October — all the “Trek” shows post episodes weekly — was created by Mike McMahan, who was a writer and producer on “Rick and Morty.” It is the least “Star Trek”-like but perhaps the most “Star Trek”-besotted show of the bunch.

Focused on a friend group of low-ranking crew members assigned to an obscure support vessel, “Lower Decks” practices a lighter version of the transgressive, cynical humor in “Rick and Morty.” (Or conversely, a more frenetic and suggestive version of the humor in “Futurama.”) Misadventures with dimwitted or comically rapacious aliens are secondary to careerism, resentments and elaborate practical jokes among the crew.

And at nearly every moment, reference is made to the larger “Trek” universe in the amusingly earnest manner of toons who know they’ll never get to make a crossover episode with the live-action shows. Season 3 begins with a reveal that Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) is, like Captain Picard, a vineyard owner back on Earth. Characters from across the “Trek” universe drop by, providing voice work for the original actors, like J.G. Hertzler as the Klingon warrior Martok, now M.C.ing a fantasy role-playing game.

It’s not surprising that “Prodigy” and “Lower Decks” offer fresh takes on the “Trek” formulas; what’s less expected is that they are, at times, more moving and emotionally complex than the live-action shows. This might have to do with their provenance in talented creators outside the “Trek” sphere. But it also feels as if the medium of animation, and the peripheral genres of kids show and comedy, provide a freedom that the makers of the live shows may not have.

Both of the animated shows have central characters who are as interesting and sharply defined as any in “Discovery,” “Picard” or “Worlds.” In both cases, they’re female off-leads or co-leads: in “Prodigy,” Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui), a massive being made of brick who is revealed to be a shy young girl, and Gwyn (Ella Purnell), the daughter of the story’s primary villain; in “Lower Decks,” Mariner (Tawny Newsome), a blindingly competitive ensign with mommy issues who is a sly analogue to hypermasculine protagonists like Kirk. When these characters confront their demons, the comic machinations of “Lower Decks” and the child’s adventure of “Prodigy” may boldly go straight to your heart.

Mike Hale is a television critic. He also writes about online video, film and media. He came to The Times in 1995 and worked as an editor in Sports, Arts & Leisure and Weekend Arts before becoming a critic in 2009. More about Mike Hale

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While The Star Trek 4 Wait Continues, The Sci-Fi Franchise Has Unveiled Another Big Movie That Has Me Intrigued

Where are they going with this?

The TV side of the Star Trek franchise has been thriving for seven years now thanks to various shows being delivered exclusively to Paramount+ subscribers (although if you’re a Star Trek: Prodigy fan, you’ll now need a Netflix subscription to keep following along with it). Film-wise, however, there hasn’t been anything delivered since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond , and we’re still no closer to Star Trek 4 ’s arrival . But while the public continues to wait for the next entry in the Kelvin timeline, another big movie has been unveiled for the sci-fi franchise that has me intrigued.

Word’s come in that Paramount Pictures has tapped Andor ’s Toby Haynes to direct a Star Trek movie that hails from a script being written by Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter ’s Seth Grahame-Smith . Deadline describes this specific project as “an origin story that takes place decades before” 2009’s Star Trek . It was also clarified that Star Trek 4 remains in “active development” and is described as the “final chapter in the main series,” but that particular tidbit can be talked about another time.

Between Haynes’ experience on Andor , the popular Star Wars show that’s returning for a second season, and Grahame-Smith’s other genre work, like The LEGO Batman Movie and IT (which he produced), I’m interested to see what this duo can do together in the Star Trek franchise. It’s also good to hear that this new Star Trek movie is something separate from Star Trek 4 , akin to what Fargo ’s Noah Hawley had been working on until late 2020.

What I’m especially curious about, though, is how closely this Star Trek movie will be tied to the Kelvin timeline movies, if at all. The fact that it’s described as taking “decades before” the flick that introduced us to Chris Pine ’s James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto ’s Spock, among others, would indicate there will be a notable connective thread. However, it’s also important to remember that the Kelvin timeline’s divergence from the main Trek timeline occurred on the day Kirk was born. Technically speaking, within that timeline, everything up until that day should have happened the same as it did in the main timeline. 

On the other hand, perhaps when it comes to the Kelvin continuity, that one change may have produced ripples that led to alterations to the entire timeline, similar to what happened in DC Comics’ Flashpoint storyline. I may just be overthinking this, but regardless, I don’t mind the idea of the Star Trek franchise’s film side continuing to expand the Kelvin timeline rather than delve back into the main timeline. That reality is already getting plenty of attention with the shows on Paramount+, and the streaming service also has the Michelle Yeoh-led Section 31 movie coming up. Let the movies keep carving out their own distinct corner.

Still, with so many Star Trek movie-relate false starts in recent years, there’s no guarantee just yet that Toby Haynes and Seth Grahame-Smith’s movie will be officially greenlit. If that happens though, naturally we’ll share the news on CinemaBlend. Meanwhile, although the Kelvin timeline movies are still accessible on Paramount+, if you want to watch any of the first 10 Star Trek movies, you’ll need a Max subscription .

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Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.

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The Star Trek Universe Celebrates 2022 with New Premiere Dates, Season Pickups

The franchise is boldly growing

StarTrek.com

Paramount+, the streaming service from ViacomCBS, today announced new season premiere dates and additional 10-episode-long season pickup orders across the service’s Star Trek Universe live-action series:

In addition to the live action series within the Star Trek Universe on Paramount+, there is more animated Star Trek on the horizon:

“Four years ago, we made a promise to grow Star Trek into something it had never been before, and thanks to the incredibly hard work done by our many talented showrunners, writers, and directors, along with the extraordinary support of CBS Studios and Paramount+, we’re keeping our word,” said Alex Kurtzman, architect and executive producer, Star Trek franchise. “Now our current shows are set up for the future as we work to build Trek ’s next phase of programming for years to come.”

Starfleet's Hope for 2022

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Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-4 are streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the UK, Canada, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia and Austria. Seasons 2 and 3 also are available on the Pluto TV “Star Trek” channel in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The series streams on Super Drama in Japan, TVNZ in New Zealand, and SkyShowtime in Spain, Portugal, Poland, The Nordics, The Netherlands, and Central and Eastern Europe and also airs on Cosmote TV in Greece. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

In addition to streaming on Paramount+ , Star Trek: Picard also streams on Prime Video outside of the U.S. and Canada, and in Canada can be seen on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave. Star Trek: Picard is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, South Korea, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In addition, the series airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada and on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Central and Eastern Europe. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

Star Trek: Lower Decks streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel. The series will also be available to stream on Paramount+ in the UK, Canada, Latin America, Australia, Italy, France, the Caribbean, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland and South Korea.

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 is available to stream on Netflix outside of markets including Canada where it is available on CTV.ca and the CTV App, France on France Televisions channels and Okoo, in Iceland on Sjonvarp Simans Premium, as well as on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Central and Eastern Europe. Star Trek: Prodigy is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

Star Trek: Discovery Finally Gave Us A Closer Look At The Franchise's Most Mysterious Villain

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Star Trek: Discovery."

"Star Trek" might represent an idealistic vision of a bolder and brighter future, but the last few seasons of "Discovery" have proven that there will always be bad guys with a penchant for muddying up those ambitions in unexpected ways -- even in the 32nd Century. While the Borg, Romulans, and the warlord Khan often have a stranglehold on the title of "Best 'Trek' villains," one alien species in particular has remained shrouded in mystery for decades. First mentioned in foreboding whispers in "The Next Generation" and finally seen in the flesh (well, so to speak) in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," the Breen have played a significant role throughout the franchise in the years since ... yet Trekkies still had to wait until now to actually see what lies underneath their distinctive helmets.

The advantage of never showing us a Breen's face, as it turns out, is that "Discovery" was able to hide one in plain sight all along.

So far, the addition of scavengers Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) has felt like a shoe waiting to drop. The close-knit pair continue to frustrate Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the rest of the Discovery crew (nowhere more dramatically than in last week's time-traveling bottle episode ), remaining one step ahead of our heroes in their quest to recover whatever Progenitor technological treasure hides at the end of this galaxy-spanning rainbow. About midway through episode 5, titled "Mirrors," the writers unleashed their big twist. L'ak, thus far considered an unknown type of extraterrestrial, actually reveals himself as a Breen. Or, rather, an emotional Moll lets this information slip by accident during a particularly fraught moment. In the process, "Trek" finally unmasked its most enigmatic aliens.

Read more: Every Star Trek Show And Movie In Chronological Order

Putting On A Brave Face (Or Two)

In the span of one episode, "Discovery" officially made "Star Trek" history.

Long treated as a mystery that left everything up to our own imaginations, the Breen reveal puts a specific face to what had previously only been a name ... actually, make that two faces. While Moll and L'ak come to a tense faceoff with Burnham and Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) on board the mirror-universe version of the USS Enterprise while trapped in multidimensional space (it's a long story), the writers treat this as the perfect opportunity to delve into the scavengers' shared past. In a series of flashbacks, we find out that L'ak was part of the Breen royal family and disgraced by his powerful Primarch uncle. Hoping to earn his way back to his people's good graces, all his plans are upended by a torrid romance with then-courier Moll. With their backs against the wall and nowhere else to turn, the lovers choose their own path altogether and, along the way, L'ak reveals his most private aspect of himself: his Breen face.

Of course, the episode adds another twist and introduces the concept of the Breen having two  faces -- a solid, corporeal form they can present to others if they so choose, and a more translucent one. (Really, it can only be described as  squishier. ) In fact, this creepy and altogether unique visage symbolizes a much more meaningful difference, as we learn when L'ak's uncle calls his chosen face an "insult to your heritage." Apparently, most Breen have moved beyond this "weak" form and consider this some sort of societal faux pas. In just a few minutes, we discover more about Breen culture than we've ever known before.

New episodes of "Star Trek: Discovery" stream every Thursday on Paramount+.

Read the original article on SlashFilm

This Is The Correct Order In Which To Watch The Star Trek Franchise

Don't look now, but "Star Trek" is a thing again. It's been a while — after redefining television in the 1960s and enjoying a resurgence in the '80s and '90s, the final episode of ""Star Trek: Enterprise" in 2005 marked the beginning of a dark period in which there was simply no "Trek" to be had. Then, in 2017, the drought ended with the premiere of " "Star Trek: Discovery ," and when it rains, it pours. "Discovery" heralded the arrival of a whole new era of ""Star Trek," and that's just the beginning — Paramount+ will soon play host to two new "Star Trek" shows, with three more currently in development, and there's a new movie scheduled for release in 2023 . Suddenly, we are awash in "Trek," which means that if you're unfamiliar with Gene Roddenberry's universe, it's a pretty good time to jump on board. Only where do you start with a franchise this big — and more importantly, what's the proper watch order?

These are the questions we're here to answer. While it's tempting to try and watch "Star Trek" chronologically, using either the fictional timeline or release dates, we recommend an order that's a bit of a blend of both. Following this list should result in an experience that provides a complete picture of what "Star Trek" is while also remaining easy to binge. With that in mind (and with the understanding that a few spoilers are unavoidable ), it's time to boldly go where every previous "Star Trek" installment has gone before!

The Original Series

When you watch "Star Trek," you really need to begin at the beginning. Not with Enterprise, which is set earlier in the "Trek" timeline than any show, but with "Star Trek" — or as it's lovingly called these days, "The Original Series." This is the show that ran on NBC from 1966 to 1969, forever altering the television medium, the science fiction genre, and the experience of being a fan. While some viewers may find the special effects laughable or the political themes unsubtle, the most astonishing thing about "TOS" is how well it holds up, even more than 50 years later. The first two seasons, in particular, are absolutely riddled with classic episodes, and while the third season is significantly worse due to changes in the creative team, it's still fun to watch William Shatner ham it up as Captain Kirk, Leonard Nimoy raise a single Vulcan eyebrow as Mr. Spock, and the original Starship Enterprise soar through space. Most importantly, though, those first 79 episodes introduce rules, concepts, and even characters that "Star Trek" is still playing with today, from Class M planets and the Prime Directive to Khan and the Klingons.

The Animated Series

The unofficial fourth and fifth seasons of "Star Trek," "The Animated Series" aired on NBC from 1973 to 1974, after tempers had cooled somewhat between NBC and Roddenberry, who left "Star Trek" after its second season out of frustration with the network. Not only was the entire original cast back (minus Walter Koenig), but so was Roddenberry, and so was D.C. Fontana, Roddenberry's longtime assistant who had grown into one of the most celebrated "Trek" writers and had also departed after Season 2. Between the return of some of the show's original creative minds and cast, and the fact that animation allowed them to do so much more than live action special effects of the era, "TAS" is pure, undiluted "Star Trek."

It's never been made explicitly clear whether "TAS" is canon, but considering the number of "TAS" ideas re-used in later live-action shows, plus the introduction in "TAS" of canon pieces of backstory, like Kirk's middle name, it's silly at this point to believe otherwise. And it's required viewing for completists who want to see every televised adventure undertaken by the original Enterprise crew.

The first six films

"Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was released by Paramount in 1979, and while it's not an especially good film, it holds historical importance as the launching point for the "Star Trek" movie franchise. The real highlights in this part of the list, though, are the three films that followed. The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, and The Voyage Home essentially form their own trilogy of movies within the larger "Trek" saga, and are some of the most popular and critically acclaimed installments in the franchise. "The Wrath of Khan," in particular, tends to show up near the top of "best science fiction films in history" lists, making the titular Khan such an iconic villain that he was recast for the J.J. Abrams reboot movies, while "The Voyage Home" is probably the most charming "Star Trek" film, as the Enterprise travels to the past to rescue the humpback whale species from extinction.

Even the most dedicated binge-watcher can safely skip the horrendous fifth movie, "The Final Frontier," but "The Undiscovered Country" is an absolute masterpiece, and taken together, these six films provide a worthy capstone to the franchise's inaugural era.

It might seem counterintuitive to follow up the oldest "Star Trek" series with one of the newest, especially given that "Star Trek: Discovery" actually takes place prior to "The Original Series." But there's a good reason to jump from the tales of Kirk and Spock to the tales of Michael Burnham and...well, and Spock, who shows up in Season 2. "The Original Series" and its accompanying animated and film extensions are foundational to "Discovery," which is set shortly after the events of the rejected "Star Trek" pilot "The Cage." And characters from "The Cage" show up in Season 2 and are also appearing in their own spinoff, "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."

While an in-universe chronological watch order would put the first two seasons of "Discovery" before "TOS" and the third season at the very end (as the crew travels forward in time to the far future) it makes more sense to us to treat "Discovery" as its own story. The third season does occasionally reference "past" events from other shows, but that does lead nicely into the next "Trek" installment...

The Next Generation (Seasons 1-5)

For many Trekkies today, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was their introduction to the franchise, and for good reason. If any one series beyond the original can lay a claim to being the single most iconic "Star Trek" story, it's Next Generation, which premiered in 1987 and went on to not only have seven seasons of its own, but to jumpstart a chain of interlocking "Star Trek" shows that would thoroughly dominate the 1990s. Before that, though, the first five seasons of Next Generation stood alone, and if you're trying to get somebody instantly hooked on Trek, this might actually be the place to start, despite the fact that the first couple of seasons don't hold up incredibly well.

If you're absorbing all of "Star Trek," though, "Next Generation" has to be the place to start. After all, it's the next generation of what, exactly? The answer is the Starship Enterprise, which comes with an entirely new cast and crew, introducing the world to Worf, Data, Counselor Troi, and Geordi LaForge, and permanently branding the hearts of a thousand Trekkies with the image of Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard .

The Next Generation (Season 6) / Deep Space Nine (Season 1)

Okay, this is where it gets weird. "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" debuted in January 1993, just a few months after "Next Generation" kicked off its sixth season — a season full of unmitigated classics, incidentally, from the return of Montgomery Scott in "Relics" to the legendary two-parter "Chain of Command." Picard even makes a cameo in the first episode of "DS9," which takes place aboard a space station and uses the ideas and events of earlier "Next Generation" episodes to inform characters like Commander Benjamin Sisko and Quark. It's essentially impossible to understand Sisko's backstory, for example, without first having seen the "Next Generation" episode "The Best of Both Worlds."

Despite the fact that they take place over roughly the same time period, we recommend watching the entirety of Season 6 of "Next Generation" followed by the entirety of Season 1 of "DS9," if for no other reason than the former has more episodes than the latter, making it a complicated process to intercut between them. But however you choose to do it, these two seasons really should be watched back to back.

The Next Generation (Season 7) / Deep Space Nine (Season 2)

Similarly, the second season of "DS9" coincides with the last "Next Generation" season. While it might lack the standout episodes of earlier seasons, Season 7 manages a few achievements. For one thing, it puts a bow on one of the most beloved shows in television history with a flourish, ending the program with an ambitious, timeline-jumping two-parter that ties directly into the events of the very first episode. It also inadvertently lays the groundwork for a much more modern "Trek" show with an episode about junior officers called "Lower Decks." But most importantly, it ties into and reinforces "Deep Space Nine," most notably in the penultimate episode "Preemptive Strike," which deals with concurrent "DS9" problems like the Cardassians and the Maquis.

By the end of Season 2, "DS9" has already proven capable of standing on its own, having picked up and ran with the Maquis threads from earlier "Next Generation" episodes, returned to the Mirror Universe first introduced in the original series, and introduced the Dominion and the Jem'Hadar, who will serve as the series' primary antagonists. But the stories of Picard and company were far from over...

Generations

The four feature films built around the cast of "Next Generation" are a direct continuation of the movies that came before, not least because the first one, 1994's "Generations," serves as a bridge between "TOS" and its descendant, and between Kirk and Picard, in about the most literal way you could imagine. This movie marks the final appearance of several characters from the original show, including Kirk himself (the one played by William Shatner, at any rate) which makes it a crucial piece of the "Star Trek" timeline, as does the introduction of Data's emotion chip. Of course, some might consider the movie worth it just to see Malcolm McDowell chew the scenery like he hasn't eaten in three days, and we can't say they're wrong.

"Generations" launched Picard's crew onto the big screen almost immediately after their exit from the small one, meaning they would continue to be the face of "Star Trek" for the remainder of the decade. But back in the realm of "Trek" TV, things were only heating up, as a new series prepared to take the field and challenge "DS9" for television dominance.

Deep Space Nine (Season 3) / Voyager (Season 1)

Once again, it's time to switch between two seasons of "Star Trek," as the third season of "DS9" overlaps with the debuting "Star Trek: Voyager." The first "Trek" series to feature a woman (Kathryn Janeway) in the captain's chair, "Voyager" also had a unique and fascinating premise. Much of the "DS9" action is driven by the existence of a nearby wormhole that leads to the Gamma Quadrant, a section of space far away from the Federation's native Alpha Quadrant. This allows the titular space station and its intrepid crew to encounter any number of new and dangerous alien species. "Voyager" goes even farther, literally — a solitary ship finds itself transported to the even more distant Delta Quadrant and spends the rest of the series trying to get home.

Due to this premise, there's no reason whatsoever to jump between individual episodes of these two seasons, as the events of one show don't affect the other in any way. But jumping between shows by the season provides a fun and accurate experience of what it was like to watch the interlocking "Star Trek" programs of the 1990s.

Deep Space Nine (Season 4) / Voyager (Season 2)

Like most "Star Trek" shows, "Voyager" takes a couple of seasons to find its feet, and Season 2 in particular contains some of its most notoriously bad episodes, from the tone-deaf Native American implications of "Tattoo" to Janeway and Voyager pilot Tom Paris turning into salamanders and having salamander babies together in "Threshold" to the utter abomination that is "Tuvix." At least it has the consideration to get them all out of the way early on.

"DS9," meanwhile, was encountering its own problems in Season 4, which took a sharp turn away from the burgeoning conflict with the Dominion and instead spent most of its time dealing with the newly antagonistic Klingon Empire. Fortunately, even as the overarching plot went briefly off the rails, the writing was getting better and better, and the diversion is, if nothing else, entertaining. As a bonus, Season 4 features one of television's first lesbian kisses, and also brings in Worf, the Klingon security officer from "Next Generation" — until Picard, Michael Dorn was the only actor to star in the main casts of two different "Star Trek" shows.

First Contact

As a result of his dual roles, Worf would spend the next several years hopping back and forth between television and the movies. One reason it's important to watch Season 4 of "DS9" prior to watching "First Contact," the second film starring the "Next Generation" cast, is because in order to include Worf in the story, the latter is obligated to include a scene in which the Enterprise rescues another ship called the Defiant, introduced in "DS9" and captained by Worf himself. Future "Next Generation" movies, which decline in quality moving forward, come up with increasingly hand-wavy reasons for his presence on the Enterprise bridge.

"First Contact" itself, however, is by far the best of the "Next Generation" films and one of the best "Star Trek" films in general, as the crew travels back in time to prevent the cybernetic hive mind known as the Borg from altering history. Not only is "First Contact" a great movie (and the film directorial debut of Jonathan Frakes, who plays Commander William Riker), it also kicks off a spectacular "Star Trek" run that can stand up against any other period in franchise history.

Deep Space Nine (Season 5) / Voyager (Season 3)

With Season 5, "DS9" gets back on track after the previous outlier season, quickly focusing around a single unified threat thanks to an alliance between the show's original antagonists the Cardassians and the Dominion. The presence of the sinister Changelings adds an intrigue element to the story, as any character could potentially be a Changeling in disguise — a concept that would be used to great effect years later in the 2004 reboot of "Battlestar Galactica." The season concludes with the official start of the Dominion War, a conflict that would dominate the remainder of the show.

"Voyager," meanwhile, was also getting back on track in its third season, which generally sees an uptick in quality — particularly toward the end, with episodes like "Before and After," "Real Life," and "Worst Case Scenario." Robert Picardo, who plays Voyager's holographic doctor, also gets to make a cameo in "DS9" as the Doctor's creator, Lewis Zimmerman, in the episode "Doctor Bashir, I presume." And Season 3 ends with the first installment of "Scorpion," which catalyzed "Voyager's" official rise to greatness in part thanks to a memorable new character.

Deep Space Nine (Season 6) / Voyager (Season 4)

These two overlapping seasons, airing in late 1997 and early 1998, represent the pinnacle of "Star Trek's" '90s golden age. In "DS9," the Dominion War is in full swing, the series' much-discussed religions themes are building in prominence, the mysterious Section 31 is introduced, foreshadowing its prominent role in both "Enterprise" and "Discovery," and most memorably, the showrunners do what almost no iteration of "Star Trek" has ever dared to do: permanently kill off a member of the main cast.

Casting changes are also a major part of Season 4 of "Voyager," which jettisons the little-loved character of Kes and officially introduces Seven of Nine , a liberated Borg drone played by Jeri Ryan who quickly joins the ranks of the franchise's most widely known characters. It's an oversimplification to suggest that the overall brilliance of Season 4 is the direct result of Ryan joining the cast, but no matter how much of it you attribute to her, it's a phenomenal season of television, filled from start to finish with some of the best "Voyager" episodes (and also "Retrospect," but we don't talk about that one).

Insurrection

It's not "First Contact," but 1998's "Insurrection" is still a pretty good "Next Generation" movie, another solid offering from Jonathan Frakes. While "Insurrection" doesn't interact much with the events of "DS9" or "Voyager," watching it at this point in the "Trek" timeline provides an overall context for the state of the Federation, which has been intermittently challenged, as the movie's primary villain points out, by the Borg, the Cardassians, and the Dominion. A sense of the Federation being assailed from all sides isn't strictly necessary for the film's story of familial betrayal on a planet that confers immortality, but it does make viewing it a more interesting experience (though again, the perfunctory inclusion of Worf simply because he's expected to be in "Next Generation" movies is potentially jarring for "DS9" fans who have become invested in his character development, which "Insurrection" largely ignores).

"Insurrection" is Frakes' last "Star Trek" movie as director (though he would later direct episodes of "Discovery" and "Picard") and marks the beginning of the end of the '90s "Trek" boom. There's still plenty of great "Trek" ahead, but the curve is now pointing down.

Deep Space Nine (Season 7) / Voyager (Season 5)

The final season of "DS9" represents one of the single greatest creative accomplishments in "Star Trek" history, as no "Trek" show to date has managed to stick such an ambitious and satisfying landing. In a unique move, the last 10 episodes of the season form a single, series-ending story, and the feature-length finale, "What You Leave Behind," is considered one of the greatest "Trek" episodes of all time. "DS9" had been great for at least two seasons prior to this one, but the success of Season 7 cemented it as a foremost jewel in the crown of the "Star Trek" franchise.

"Voyager," meanwhile, continued its stellar run of episodes, capping off a three-year rehabilitation effort that saw one of the franchise's shakiest shows become one of its best. It was good timing, too, because with "DS9" wrapping up ("What You Leave Behind" aired the week after the Season 5 "Voyager" finale, "Equinox"), Captain Janeway and her crew were suddenly the only starship in the galaxy. And you, intrepid binge-watcher, can finally stop switching between two different shows.

Voyager (Seasons 6-7)

Unlike "DS9," the final seasons of "Voyager" are not its best, though admittedly, after Seasons 4 and 5, that's a high bar to clear. Season 6 comes close with a steady stream of classics, introducing both the popular Holodeck scenario Fair Haven and the "Pathfinder" storyline that sees "Next Generation" vets Reginald Barclay and Deanna Troi join up as recurring characters. By Season 7, however, the quality of "Voyager" has begun to dip noticeably — the final season contains few memorable episodes and at least one extremely ill-conceived romantic subplot. It earns some redemption, however, with the two-part series finale "Endgame," which, whether you like it or not, at least fulfills the promise of the show's premise and comes to a definitive conclusion about whether the ship and its crew are ever getting back to the Alpha Quadrant. It's a moment that would have been easy to shy away from, and "Voyager" meets it head on.

"Endgame" aired in May 2001, and in retrospect, the title didn't only apply to "Voyager." The continuous story that "Star Trek" had been telling for the past 14 years over the course of three different shows and three different movies was over. There was, however, one last (incredibly depressing) chapter to get through.

The final "Next Generation" film, released in 2002, is by far the worst of them, and the worst "Star Trek" movie in general since 1989's "The Final Frontier." It was so bad, in fact, that it notoriously killed "Star Trek" — plans for a fifth "Next Generation" movie were scrapped after "Nemesis" bombed at the box office, and creatively, it's an absolute nightmare, introducing a Romulan sister planet with the unfortunate name of Remus, blatantly attempting to restart Data's entire character arc via a literal copy with the also unfortunate name of B-4, and tying these and other unfortunate decisions together with a nonsensical plot featuring Tom Hardy as a secret clone of Picard. After "Nemesis," the scuttling of future franchise installments can honestly be seen as a mercy killing.

"Star Trek" wasn't quite dead in 2002, however. While we've now officially made it through the combined stories of "Next Generation," "DS9," and "Voyager," there's one more show, independent from the others, that now enters the viewing order. And watching it involves going back to the very beginning... and even before that.

In a chronological viewing, "Star Trek: Enterprise" would actually be the first show you watch, since it takes place a hundred years prior to "The Cage." Indirectly spinning off from the events of "First Contact," it tells the story of Earth's first warp starship, appropriately named the Enterprise and captained by Scott Bakula's Jonathan Archer, and of humanity's early relationships with alien species like the Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans, and Andorians. Despite its status as a prequel, the sheer degree to which "Enterprise" relies on its audience having knowledge of other "Star Trek" properties makes it almost impossible to recommend as an entry point. It fits much better here, as the official end of the franchise's second major era, especially given that the final episode, "These Are The Voyages...," frames itself as a holodeck simulation being watched by the Enterprise crew from "Next Generation."

"There Are The Voyages..." aired on May 13th, 2005. There wouldn't be another "Star Trek" show for more than 12 years. At this point, our watch order breaks away from order of release, but we feel strongly that it's how "Star Trek" from 1987 to 2005 should be watched.

Lower Decks

If you think 12 years is a long gap between "Star Trek" installments, that's nothing compared to the 45 years that went by between "Trek" stories told via animation. "Short Treks" was technically the first "Trek" show since "The Animated Series" to include animated episodes, and that aired in 2019, but 2020 gave us the first season of "Lower Decks," an entirely animated show about the people who don't get to hang out on the bridge.

The first franchise installment to ever concern itself primarily with characters who are not in command of a starship or space station, "Lower Decks" is the "Star Trek" equivalent of shows like HBO's "Harley Quinn" — an irreverent, adult-oriented comedy that revels in its TV-MA rating, delivering violence, sex, and swearing at warp speed frequencies. Chronologically, it's set shortly after the events of "Nemesis," but more importantly to the binge-watcher, it's the dessert following a feast — a vital dose of pure fun after absorbing almost four full decades of space drama.

The Kelvin timeline

After the box office failure of "Nemesis" brought an abrupt end to the "Next Generation" movies, there wasn't a new "Trek" film until 2009. And far from being a continuation of the existing movie franchise, this new version, simply called "Star Trek," was a reboot of "The Original Series," casting new, younger versions of Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the first Enterprise crew. Sequels to the reboot followed in 2013 and 2016.

Watching these three movies as part of a "Star Trek" binge is pretty much entirely optional, since they take place in an alternate timeline created when the USS Kelvin was destroyed in battle with time-traveling Romulan ship from the 24th century, leaving an infant James T. Kirk without a father in the process. Moreover, the trilogy is widely considered to be of uneven quality (though the third movie, "Star Trek Beyond," is considerably better than its predecessor, possibly due to the departure of director J.J. Abrams). Still, if you're going to watch them, this is the place in the viewing order to do it, as a key plot point of the first film — the Romulan sun going supernova — plays a major role in "Picard."

Short Treks

The Kelvin movies might not exert much direct influence over the larger plot of "Star Trek," but they played a major role in the future of the franchise by bringing in Alex Kurtzman. Kurtzman is the showrunner on "Discovery," and with the exception of "Lower Decks," he has been directly involved in every modern "Trek" series. In 2018, after the successful first season of "Discovery" led to a new expansion of the "Star Trek" franchise, Kurtzman and co-creator Bryan Fuller (formerly a writer on "DS9" and "Voyager") premiered "Short Treks," an anthology series of short, unrelated stories. As of this writing, there have been two seasons and 10 total episodes, some live-action, some animated.

"Short Treks" spans almost the entire "Star Trek" timeline — two episodes are set in the period of time between "Enterprise" and "The Original Series," while a third takes place in the far future. As a result, watching it requires a sense of the entire scope of the "Trek" universe. It's the penultimate entry in this watch order, however, because the Season 2 finale, "Children of Mars," leads directly into the final entry: "Picard."

"Star Trek: Picard" is the first of the modern "Trek" offerings to look forward rather than back, giving us a story set after the events of "Next Generation," "DS9," and "Voyager." Indeed, not only does the series follow up with Jean-Luc Picard 20 years after we last saw him (and 12 years after the Romulan sun went supernova) but it also brings in an older version of Seven of Nine, once again portrayed by Jeri Ryan. As mentioned, Picard also ties into the most recent installment of "Short Treks," which involves a terrorist attack by synthetic life forms that eventually leads to a ban on their creation — one of the many plot elements of "Picard" that has drawn criticism for being inconsistent with the original utopian vision of "Star Trek."

With so many new "Trek" shows on their way, this list will quickly become outdated. But all the upcoming series will reward previous "Trek" viewing, from Janeway's return on "Star Trek: Prodigy" to a show focused entirely on Section 31. So if you're going to binge all of "Star Trek," you might want to get started now!

• April 29, 2024 | Preview ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Episode 506 With New Images. Trailer And Clip From “Whistlespeak”
• April 28, 2024 | Interview: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Writer Carlos Cisco On Unmasking The Breen And Revisiting The ISS Enterprise
• April 26, 2024 | Michael Dorn Wanted Armin Shimerman To Play The Ferengi That Worf Killed In Star Trek Picard
• April 26, 2024 | Podcast: All Access Gets To Know The Breen In ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ 505, “Mirrors”
• April 25, 2024 | Prep Begins For ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 3 Finale; Cast And Directors Share BTS Images

New Paramount Takeover Buzz Could Impact Star Trek Franchise

| December 14, 2023 | By: Anthony Pascale 124 comments so far

Once again, Paramount Global is the subject of speculation in Hollywood and Wall Street. There are credible reports that a controlling stake in the media corporation that produces and distributes Star Trek is up for sale.

Control of Paramount Global could be changing

The latest round of speculation in the media started with a report by industry watcher Puck regarding how Shari Redstone is considering selling her controlling stake in Paramount Global. Redstone (via her company National Amusements) owns 10% of Paramount Global, but (more importantly) 80% of the voting shares in the media company. According to the report, which has subsequently been backed by the Wall Street Journal and others, Skydance Media (owned by David Ellison) and private equity firm RedBird Capital are in early talks with Redstone. Skydance has had a long relationship with Paramount, co-producing a number of blockbuster movies, including the last two Star Trek feature films and are also on board for Star Trek 4 . The Wall Street Journal reports Redstone has also met with Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, who will soon be departing Activision with $400 million following the company’s recent acquisition by Microsoft. So it appears she is at least considering selling her stake in Paramount.

Buying out Redstone is seen as a cheaper way to get control of Paramount Global without having to purchase the company (and its debts) outright. The expectation is that these investors are looking to get access to parts of the company and sell off others. In the case of Skydance, it’s been reported Ellison is most interested in taking over Paramount Pictures, CBS Studios, and all their intellectual property but isn’t interested in the CBS broadcast network, the cable channels, or the streaming components Pluto and Paramount+, home to original Star Trek programming. An analyst from Wells Fargo suggests that Paramount+, which has yet to turn a profit, could be shut down and other unwanted assets would be sold off. What remained could then be merged with Skydance forming a new production-focused studio owning all of Paramount’s properties, including Star Trek.

Since the re-merger of Viacom and CBS in 2019 (creating what is now Paramount Global) the corporation has struggled as it took on more debt to fight in the streaming wars. The stock has  underperformed against other media companies, although it has seen a jump in the last few days due to the talk of a sale. Shari Redstone’s goal has been to turn the media company into an attractive takeover target for a larger entity, primarily keeping the company and her family’s legacy together. According to the New York Times , Redstone held talks about such an acquisition with tech giants Amazon and Apple as well as Netflix earlier this year. The Hollywood trades have also speculated that there could be a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, Comcast, or another media company. It’s still possible a big deal like that could happen. Paramount is considering laying off 1,000 staffers in early 2024 to cut costs, making it a more attractive takeover target. Paramount CEO Bob Bakish and other execs indicated they see some kind of deal coming when they recently adopted new (and very lucrative) severance packages for themselves which would be triggered in the event they were let go following an acquisition.

Paramount Global chairwoman and president of National Amusements Shari Redstone

What this means for Star Trek

Throughout the history of the Star Trek franchise starting back when it was owned by Desilu in the 1960s, it has seen several changes in ownership, corporate structure, and management. It seems plausible if not probable more changes are coming, possibly in 2024. What makes any new changes in control different this time is how tied Star Trek has become to Paramount+, starting with Star Trek: Discovery (which wraps up next year) and including four active projects on the streaming platform ( Strange New Worlds , Lower Decks , Starfleet Academy , and the Section 31 movie). The service has grown to 63 million subscribers with costs going down but it has yet to turn a profit. However, even if Paramount+ were shut down, any new owners would certainly look to license the popular content. This would certainly include the Star Trek library and likely some or all of the active Star Trek projects as well. This process could be seamless, but we could also see Star Trek content become unavailable for streaming temporarily while new licensing deals were struck, as we saw this year with Prodigy . Depending on the buyer, Paramount+ could also end up being merged with another streamer, like Peacock, Prime Video, or Apple+, which would just move the Star Trek content to the newly merged streaming platform.

The new owners of Paramount could also look to license brand new Star Trek content to other streamers or channels. In fact, moving back to licensing and co-productions is seen as the new trend for streaming companies looking to cut costs, according to a report today in Variety . There is also a trend back towards bundling, including reports that Apple and Paramount are already in talks on a Paramount+/Apple+ bundle , although that would be more about marketing than actually combining apps and content.

In the case of a sale and divestiture of assets, what remains of Paramount could emerge stronger. As noted by a Wells Fargo analyst, “Post very significant asset sales, Paramount New Company could be an attractive growth/content company.” This new Paramount would own the Star Trek library and rights and would be producing and licensing Star Trek content. As noted earlier, Skydance has been working with Paramount Pictures on the recent Star Trek movies and David Ellison (seen below at the Beyond premiere) is credited as an executive producer. Ellison also has a connection to Alex Kurtzman who is currently in charge of Star Trek TV for Paramount. Back in 2011, Kurtzman (and his former partner Roberto Orci) held talks to merge their production company K.O. Paper Products with Skydance. In the end, a new Skydance/Paramount with a corporate focus on content creation could be good news for Star Trek.

For now, it’s too early to even predict what will happen. It’s  possible that Redstone, who has proven to be stubborn in the past, isn’t able to find a deal that works for her. In that case, Paramount Global will struggle on as it tries to make its streaming service profitable while shepherding its legacy businesses facing difficult market trends. Regardless, it appears changes are coming for Paramount and there will likely be some ripple effect on Star Trek. So stay tuned to TrekMovie for all the latest.

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Skydance makes offer for paramount global; star trek franchise could be under new ownership, again.

Change is Good

Change can be good, or it can be Elon Musk buying Twitter…

Or Disney buying Fox. Or AT&T then Discovery buying Warner Bros.

The best thing for Star Trek is for Paramount Global to remain an independent entity, which is a dimming prospect. Next best is being bought out by Apple as they are both deep-pocketed/patient and don’t have competing blockbuster franchises. While any streamer would welcome the views Disco, Picard, and SNW have gotten, Trek would still get lost in the shuffle as an also ran of licensed content on a bigger streamer. It would always be a top priority for Paramount+. Moot point if they run out of money though.

AT&T is still the majority owner with about 71% of WBD, they just gave up the hassle of the day-to-day operation of an entertainment company. Even so, things are arguably worse there than they were before.

I don’t see Apple making a move for Paramount. I could see them acquiring pieces after someone else acquires Paramount but I don’t see them pursuing any entertainment company as a whole that straddles them with debt and a headache to deal with from day one.

Apple doesn’t like making big acquisitions, and Paramount has a lot of businesses Apple wouldn’t want to get into. They deal with the FCC enough as it is without suddenly having to worry about owning broadcast networks. The biggest appeal of Paramount is its film and TV library, IP, studios, and film distribution prowess. The broadcast networks are profitable but losing influence by the day. PlutoTV makes money but may be worth losing if it means being able to part with broadcast. Paramount+ has a lot of subscribers but is still at least a couple years from profitability. That’s absolutely a lot for someone to take on while assuming billions in debt as well.

Buying out National Amusements would give someone control of Paramount without the debt, but would likely perpetuate the current climate of cost cutting and layoffs.

Musk buying Twitter was a great move.

All this makes the future of Trek uncertain. They should scrap plans for Starfleet Academy, IMO.

Blowing 44 Billion on a dumpster fire. Then turning it into a dumpster fire in the middle of a train wreck.

Buying twitter could only be a great move if you’re talking about bowel movements.

You’re not very bright. As dull as a black hole.

Stop insulting black holes.

“ Musk buying Twitter was a great move.”

Elon Musk enters the chat.

For anybody except Elon Musk burning 44 billion dollars on a prank and turning one of the world’s primary information hubs into a hive of Nazi scum and villainy is not “a great move”.

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahwhahahwhw.

I mean, it wasn’t even a great move for Musk himself, let alone anyone else. Even some of his biggest load-swallowers aren’t loving what he’s done to the place, so it blows my mind that anyone here actually thinks it’s been a good development.

That said, sky dance having some kind of control at Paramount might be good for trek considering how heavily invested in the movies and sci-fi in general as they already are.

If Skydance were to purchase, I’d be pretty comfortable with that.

Amazon, too, as they also seem quite comfortable investing in science fiction.

Apple also, but I would be surprised if they decided on, frankly, such a rinky-dink purchase when they could pay cash for Netflix tomorrow.

Amazon is sitting on an underused Scifi property of their own thanks to buying MGM – STARGATE! They’ve done nothing with the property.

Star Trek could be seen as more popular and known compared to Stargate.

That’s the understatement of the year. Lol

I don’t hear a lot of people asking for more stargate.

Well, I’m certainly asking for more STARGATE.

I do, and it’s not even one of my fandoms. I think Stargate could be like Trek: a comfortably mid-level property with a sustainable fanbase. But it’d require investment I don’t think any of the streamers are willing to make on something that’s not going to be a blow-the-doors-off hit.

Amazon spent half a billion dollars on eight episodes of The Rings Of Power and they are doing another season. I think a Stargate show could do even better and cost less.

It would definitely cost less. But it wouldn’t bring in as many eyeballs as the LOTR prequel; I’d be willing to bet even the number of hate watchers for that…endeavor would outnumber the potential Stargate audience to a depressing degree.

Lots of people would like to see more Stargate. I definitely would. Well, as long as it’s good. If it’s more like what we got from Stargate Universe then they should just leave it alone.

Prime Video has terrible apps and interfaces, and the company on the whole is even more unsavory than Apple. They’re interested in sci-fi but barely gave The Expanse enough runway for its last season and cancelled The Peripheral unceremoniously. Shows easily get lost there.

I’ve never had any issues with their interface?

Then again, I do use a a high-end Apple TV device. If you are using some cheap stick or built in TV app connectivity (or even worse, a PC), that is probably your issue.

I use a 4K Apple TV. Amazon stopped using Apple’s UI to control playback, so you can’t scrub through a video quickly. You also have to pause a show to turn on subtitles. I don’t like that.

Apple would be my pick. They’ve already built quite an impressive sci-fi portfolio. Star Trek would fit there nicely.

Not only that, but they would force the production values up and would likely not continue with LDS, since they are a prestige service.

Apple TV+ also shows original cartoons and has plenty of shows and films with production values below P+’s Star Trek shows.

Amazon own MGM/UA and the James Bond catalog. And have a rights partnership with EON over the next movie.

Here’s hoping Ellison doesn’t kill the golden goose for their content: the global film distribution side of the business. Makes sense to divest from TV platforms, but if memory serves, Paramount’s primary revenue comes from distribution.

Your article is missing the fact that David Ellison is friends with Alex Kurtzman, and at one point tried to sign him exclusively to Skydance.

Boy I could have gone all year (or decade) without hearing that.

You didn’t read the article very closely; it’s in there.

Do people understand what a cancerous parasite Bobby Kotick is? We better hope he stays far away from anything related to Trek.

Kotick would be too much of a headache and would likely face resistance so that scenario seems the least likely to pan out.

Bobby Kotick could just take his $400 million and ride off into the sunset.

But has there ever been a person with $400 million who was satisfied with $400 million?

I volunteer to find out!

Shutting down Paramount+ would likely kill off a number of series which are currently exclusive to it. “Strange New Worlds”, “Halo” and pretty much anything from Taylor Sheridan would likely be safe, everything else would be vulnerable. Most original content exclusive to Paramount+ would no longer be necessary, having been produced only to provide original content for the streamer.

Speculation is that Paramount would sell off their linear assets (broadcast and cable) while retaining Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios, essentially mirroring a structure that has proven successful for Sony as the only studio to entirely avoid streaming. This would likely result in Paramount+ with Showtime simply reverting to Showtime after a potential sale, with Paramount licensing Showtime originals back to them (and whatever else Showtime might be interested in).

David Ellison likely has his own vision for moving Paramount Pictures, CBS Studios and its various franchises forward, which likely means moving his people in and pushing Bob Bakish, Brian Robbins and numerous other execs out as well as various production partners, with Skydance filling the void.

I haven’t watched it because I don’t care about it at all but I’ve heard only bad things about that Halo show. And while the Trek shows are the top earners on that plattform I don’t think, they’re acually making money on their own. So really: killing it all might be the best move financially

Halo won’t be winning any awards but it’s a strong performer. As for Star Trek, a top performer as well but, yeah, not actually profitable. They’re still putting more money into originals for Paramount+ than they’re getting out of them. Paramount+ is operating at a loss across the board. The same could be said about Disney+ but Disney eventually recoups their losses on the back end with a pile of IP to profit from.

Expecting anything good based on a videogame. What is the most successful that animated Mario thing. Video game movies and shows don’t work.

The Last Of Us was pretty good and got a lot of awards nominations.

I could imagine them selling Lower Decks to Netflix if Prodigy does particularly well there.

The third season of Strange New Worlds was already set back by the strikes; I hope the possible sale of Paramount doesn’t delay it further!

If there is no more Paramount+ before they finish it, then it may delay it. Star Trek is going to show up somewhere – the CBS broadcast network? Apple+? – so SNW would likely have a home pretty quickly.

Well, there’s one excuse on why they haven’t greenlit Legacy.

That… and the fact that there’s no indication it was ever on the table to begin with, other than in fans’ minds.

Which was also true of SNW until it wasn’t.

Matalas clearly set up the show at the end of Picard.

We’re really gonna do this every time, huh?

Paramount+ as a whole is in a holding pattern and that’s a generous assessment. They haven’t announced anything new for Paramount+ in quite some time and everything slated had been previously announced with no indication of what happens beyond 2024.

A Legacy series seems the most likely Star Trek candidate to produce with the intention of licensing it elsewhere. As with Season 3 of Picard, viewers would be able to jump in with little knowledge of the current state of Star Trek and with minimal exposition or explanation.

The main one being that Kurtzman was apparently jealous of Matalas success an popularity in the star Trek fandom.

Where did you hear this?

Any decisions regarding what’s next for Star Trek is out of Kurtzman’s hands so it ultimately doesn’t matter.

This reads like the dozens of “inside sources say Kurtzman is getting fired next week” comments. Anything that sounds tailor made to make parts of the Trek fandom happy should be seen as fake first and foremost tbh

“ Kurtzman was apparently jealous of Matalas”

Well, that doesn’t sound totally made up at all. /s

Getting sick of all this. Paramount+ stated that it was the home of all Star Trek But that is not the case. Frustrating. Hopefully all Star Trek remains on Paramount+.

Paramount+ had a couple Trek films listed in their “Watch before they’re gone” list last week. I saw First Contact listed.

This is why I still purchase physical media for franchises I love. The recent 4k releases for the films (I don’t have a 4K TV or player) also include newly upgraded Blu Rays, which are awesome, and I have the 4K discs when I’m finally able to make that upgrade.

Yup, I own all of my favorite Trek on physical media, and have for years. It’s the only way to go, imo.

The point of the article is that there may not be a Paramount+ in the near future.

In other words … billionaires and multi-millionaires continuing to look for ways to screw over creatives, acting like there’s some “financial crisis” in the streaming world when CEOs and shareholders continue to rake in record profits.

As someone who owns Disney stock who’s lost 40% on it in the last year, and who also looks at Paramount stock which is 1/4 of what it was 2 years ago, where are all these shareholders making all this money that you’re talking about?

This is the problem with some fans who just like to bitch about studio companies. They don’t even bother to look at the stock price history. They assume shareholders are basking in profits — well I got you news for you, most of us are losing money..

Ordinary investors are losing money on these two stocks, sure. But the big players tend to find ways to make money no matter what ( e.g. hedge funds).

I think he’s referring to major shareholders. For your average shareholder it’s an investment that will hopefully payoff down the road. For major shareholders it’s about leverage and the potential for huge payouts.

Having worked for several major media companies, our fortunes were always tied to the actions of those at the top. Even when they failed, they walked away with piles of cash and lucrative stock options while the rest of us looked at bonuses which were going to take a hit or the possibility of layoffs.

I don’t disagree with that in terms of Disney, in fact I am thinking about doubling down on their stock right now. Paramount though — no way would I ever put my money there with the dysfunction of the Redstone’s and all the other bad moves.

CEOs yes, shareholders not really.

What if Star Trek: Prodigy is the only show to survive the chaos to come due to moving to Netflix early.

I’d be okay with it. Prodigy is great Trek.

Huh? There is zero news that Netflix is going to fund any new seasons of prodigy

Its been reported time and again that Netflix has the license to order more seasons of Prodigy, and if the show does well there they likely will.

Netflix did the same for numerous other shows like Longmire – it’s cheaper for them to buy a show that already exists and has a fanbase they can grow.

Of course they might given they have the license. I don’t see why more people would suddenly watch it there versus Nick and P+, but you can hope.

It’s like perhaps they also have the license for bovine aviation, and so we could then conclude that maybe pigs will fly next year? :-)

You don’t see why more people would watch a Star Trek show on a streaming network that has four times the amount of viewership, a far larger global reach, underserved Star Trek fandom, and a preexisting audience for action kids animation that Paramount+ does not?

bovine = cows, porcine = pigs

Nothing moved to Netflix “early” in any sense like “Star Trek is moving to Netflix.”

CBS cut the show, but S2 was almost complete, so they decided to finish production and allowed it to go looking for buyers.

That’s not the same thing.

To be frank, Star Trek and Paramount’s other IPs are probably worth more sold off piecemeal than as part of “Paramount Global.”

🤞 for season 3!

Prodigy is great Star Trek though! That and LDS are my favorite NuTrek shows!

Agreed! I’m more hyped about season two of Prodigy on Netflix than the final season of Discovery on Paramount+, to be honest.

The sooner we got we get the last Redstone out the door the better. That whole family has been like a cancer to the studio — they’re 20th century thinking dinosaurs

She’s the most sensible of the lot and helped get Les Moonves canned.

She the one that manage to merge star trek back together again. Honestly surprise plans to sell after all the hard work she done over last 5 years or so.

Getting it back together greatly increases its value if you want to sell it.

Business reporting as it pertains to Star Trek is Anthony P’s strong suit. He is meticulous in his reports and analysis.

I’d be happy to see it over at apple. They have a great SciFi Portfolio already and let’s not forget, that they wanted the Stargate rights back in 2007.

Maybe we’d finally get some good Trek again that way.

I’d hate to see any Star Trek go to Apple. Last year I got a free iPad and got Apple TV+ free for three months and then started paying for it because I got into Foundation and Shrinking. I don’t like that I’m giving money to Apple. I definitely don’t want to start any new shows from Apple. I’m probably going to cancel it and just get it again later for one month to binge the next seasons of Foundation and Shrinking until they are done and then drop the service completely.

Sell it to whoever can actually afford to make the Legacy show! 😎👍

Maybe they sell it to Apple and we’ll get a $250 million 3 hour Star Trek movie directed by Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio plays Captain Kirk.

Hey, you never know?

I’d watch that.

Of course they’re not interested in the CBS network, cable, or streaming! Cable and OTA television are deader than dead. And let’s be real here – Paramount+ is a failed streaming service. It’s so sad that Star Trek had to be put on it, because from the very start CBSAA was a truly awful app. Like never mind the lack of content – it’s a terrible app, period. It has a lousy UI experience. Even now as P+, it still is so lacking in so many ways that other streamers ironed out literally a decade ago. So no one will miss P+, no one will miss its lousy content (honestly I’m aghast not only at the “Star Trek” they’ve produced for it but also so many other reboots, remakes, and half-baked productions to simply fill out its library), and it will be a miracle if anyone even remembers it 5 years from now. We’ll all just go, “Oh yeah, wasn’t there a time when Paramount had an app? That was awful.” Sigh. I feel bad Star Trek is saddled to such a loser. If it was on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, literally any other app, its reach would be so much more massive. The end of P+ can’t come soon enough, IMO.

(honestly I’m aghast not only at the “Star Trek” they’ve produced for it but also so many other reboots, remakes, and half-baked productions to simply fill out its library)

An interesting point. Perhaps the existence of the streaming service did indeed incentivize the “throw a lot of mud on the wall and see what stick” approach they’ve taken with NuTrek.

I’d so much rather they do one high-quality series and get it right.

The only issue I’ve had with Paramount+ on FireTV and GoogleTV in the last year or so was that the last few new Frasier episodes were just a black screen with audio until I rebooted the device a time or two. I’ve had more trouble with Max in the last year than with Paramount+.

Jeez, what a load of BS. Just because you wish it to be true doesn’t make it so. LOL

Paramount+ sounds like it may be the UPN of streaming sites. To be honest that’s what I considered All Access lol. Now that was a horrible and crappy service all around. It was killed off quickly for P+ which I do think is a huge improvement.

But I obviously agree Star Trek would at least get a lot more attention on bigger and more popular sites like Netflix and Amazon. People actually have those. To this day I don’t know anyone who even has P+ and it seems to have a bad reputation online. I doubt most people even know these new Trek shows exist if they don’t have it.

Those of us who have maintained Paramount Plus in all it’s various forms and incarnations has been a dead man walking for years now feel more than a bit vindicated.

Not if Kurtzman gains more influence over Star Trek.

Huh??? He already runs all the streaming shows! And a new movie seems to eternally be on the back burner. So what more influence could he have?

Is he related to Harlan Ellison?

Anyway, I have a bad feeling about this.

After thinking about it, I am ok if all current Star Trek productions would wrap up their current seasons and then end. I think it would be a good time to let Star Trek lie dormant for a few years and let a new team take it over after that.

As Kirk said “too much of anything, even love, is not a good thing.” I think there is too much Trek now. Personally, I got what I wanted with Picard Season 3 and the SNW musical. My heart is full with those two productions so I don’t need anymore Star Trek from the current team. Let the current era end.

Honestly, I could get behind this. We need some new drivers at the wheel.

Personally really enjoying Strange New Worlds so I don’t really want it to end yet.

I would say in terms of the individual shows it’s hardly begun, given that the norm used to be 7 seasons with 20+ episodes. I would have been inclined to do 5-7 years of one, then wait a bit, then start something else rather than this saturation though. But I think Paramount see it as the closest they have to Star Wars or the MCU and try to copy the TV model of those franchises.

Chances are high that Skydance would invest in prober preservation work. I have deep concerns regarding the preservation of the “classical” Star Trek shows, including TOS, TNG, and the other “classic” shows from this franchise. As a devoted fan of Star Trek, especially TNG, which holds a special place in my heart, I understand from current information that there are no plans to release any of the “classic” Star Trek shows in a 4K format. While this of course is disappointing for many (including myself), my primary concern is whether these iconic shows will at least be preserved in 4K resolution. My worries stem from the fact that these shows were originally filmed on 35mm film, which, to my knowledge, is roughly the equivalent of 4K resolution. However, it appears that they have only been scanned and preserved in 1080p HD quality. This resolution, while high definition, does not fully utilize the potential quality that the original 35mm film can offer. Preserving these shows in 4K would not only honor the legacy of the legendary Gene Roddenberry, but also ensure that they are maintained in the highest possible quality for future generations. This is crucial for historical preservation, as well as for providing the best viewing experience for new and existing fans. The film material could potentially suffer from various forms of deterioration such as aging, so to say as we speak the film stock is bit by bit losing quality, environmental damage from earthquakes or fire, going missing, you name it.. Even tv shows such as “Columbo” or “Babylon 5” were scanned in 4K resolution, with at least “Babylon 5” certainly having a much lower historical value compared to Star Trek. I’m aware that financial factors might be a significant reason preventing this preservation from mhappening. However, I firmly believe that there is a possibility of finding sponsors or engaging in a crowdfunding initiative to support this essential preservation work. The fan base is large, dedicated, and I’m confident that many, like myself, would be willing to contribute to safeguarding the legacy of these beloved shows.

I reckon it’s where people like Jeff Bezos, who’s a fan of star trek, could step in. If they really cared enough. Make it best archival material possible. I mean goodness, it could then all by on Prime.

How about Deep Space Nine and Voyager in 2k. Before making the pitch for TOS in 4K. Not gonna happen because TNG didn’t make back what it cost in blu-ray disc sales. Would cost millions of dollars.

The information (or more accurately said -rumor-, since there never has been any official or unofficial verification if this information is even accurate) that TNG-Remastered didn’t made enough money now is several years old. In the meantime, it was even re-re-released in 2017 with a full edition collection and recently in the Picard Legacy Collection. Furthermore, TNG was/is highly popular on streamers over the past years. Also, if the sale numbers were that low back in the day, why didn’t CBS/Paramount stoped the heavily expansive production process of the remastering after season 1, 2, or at least season 3 were released, where it must have been pretty clear how sales were going, since the seasons were released with a gap of several month..

My understanding is that DS9, VOY and possibly some of ENT were recorded on video rather than filmed so it’s not a case of re-scanning, it would be a case of artificial upscaling techniques.

Why would the chances be high? Honestly asking – does Skydance have a historic interest in this? They’d be on a tear to divest parts of Paramount with their own creditors breathing down their necks to get results, so I’m not clear where/when a drive to exploit legacy product down the line in this manner would happen.

So if Streaming is losing money, cable and OTA are losing viewers, and the distributors don’t want a one-and-done sale of physical media, where will the content be seen?

Do these people even think about how any of this works?

The streamers who waited it out long enough to turn a profit (Netflix, Hulu) or are backed by a a bigger company with an ulterior motive (Amazon, Apple) will not be going anywhere. Everyone else is just trying to an equilibrium where they stop hemorrhaging money. Paramount+ loses less money each year but the parent company doesn’t have a ton of cash to wait it out, and it’s especially vulnerable to shifts in ad revenue, the downturn of broadcast and box office turmoil.

Crazy how many changes and failed projects Star Trek has survived by now. Apple TV+ would be the perfect home for it. One can hope …

“As noted earlier, Skydance has been working with Paramount Pictures on the recent Star Trek movies”

Recent? Did I miss a movie in the past three-quarters of a decade?

Since Beyond will be eight years old in 2024, it’s certainly hard to think of the Kelvin films as “recent.” I would certainly enjoy a final film with this cast, but at this point it would certainly be a “reunion.”

I just can’t even get excited at the prospect (no disrespect intended to those who do) and if I can’t I fear that’s also a decent chunk of the rest of the core fan base. So I’m not sure ST4 is a good business proposition, but obviously the proper data might disagree with me. I’ll see it if it happens but in terms of TV I know roughly when all the upcoming TV is out off the top of my head.

Star Trek 4 happening is that even real? I mean the 4th Kelvin not the one with the whales. I won’t believe it until i see Pine on set in front of a camera in costume as Kirk.

Another nail in the coffin for a Star Trek movie – no studio is going to invest a couple of hundreds of millions of dollars while negotiations are ongoing

The first nail was already hammered in when Beyond bombed. They included five more since after five cancelled projects. 😂

They know most people moved on from these movies long ago and you have to be insane to spend more than $100 million dollars on a Star Trek movie today when real blockbuster IPs are failing left and right. And I doubt Paramount can even have that kind of money for Star Trek anyway.

I found it cathartic to have Indiana Jones back, obviously a lot of people didn’t even see the movie. Loved the new MI movie as well. Transformers Rise of the Beasts i found a chore, not recommended i thought it was worse than The Last Knight.

Right now it seems as if audiences are kind of done with these franchises. No way Paramount (or whoever ends up owning it) will put any money into a (let’s face it) second tier franchise like ST.

OK. Looks like Warner Bros Discovery is looking at merging with Paramount Global, per Deadline:

Merger Meeting?: WBD’s David Zaslav & Paramount Global’s Bob Bakish Sit Down To Talk Possible Deal, “Preliminary” Says Source

Screen Rant

Star trek: discovery just did a secret strange new worlds crossover.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 brought Captain Burnham to the Mirror Universe's Starship Enterprise. If the sets look familiar, it's because they are.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 5 - "Mirrors"

• Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 5 was a crossover with Strange New Worlds' Enterprise sets.
• Captain Burnham found the Mirror Universe's ISS Enterprise in interdimensional space.
• The two Star Trek series share sets in Toronto and they have filmed on each other's sets before.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5, "Mirrors," was a secret crossover with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . Written by Johanna Lee & Carlos Cisco and directed by Jen McGowan, Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5 sent Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) into interdimensional space in pursuit of Moll (Eve Harlow), L'ak (Elias Toufexis), and the next clue to the ancient treasure of the Progenitors. Burnham never expected to find the derelict ISS Enterprise from the Mirror Universe within the dangerous wormhole.

Star Trek: The Original Series season 2, episode 4, "Mirror, Mirror", introduced the Mirror Universe and the ISS Enterprise , the alternate reality counterpart of the USS Enterprise. The ISS Enterprise hadn't been seen since, but Star Trek: Discovery revealed refugees attempted to flee the Mirror Universe aboard the Constitution Class ship. The passengers, including Science Officer Dr. Cho, abandoned the Enterprise in interdimensional space and made it to Star Trek 's Prime Universe. Later, Dr. Cho returned to hide her clue to the Progenitors' treasure aboard the ISS Enterprise.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Returning Cast & New Character Guide

Star trek: discovery season 5 filmed on strange new worlds’ enterprise set, discovery and strange new worlds film on adjacent sets in toronto.

Although no characters from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds appeared in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5 - which makes sense since the two series are set over 930 years apart in Star Trek 's timeline - "Mirrors" was filmed on Strange New Worlds ' USS Enterprise sets which doubled for the ISS Enterprise. Star Trek: Discovery and Strange New Worlds shoot in Toronto on adjacent soundstages and both shows have access to each other's sets. In an interview with Screen Rant , David Ajala confirmed that Discovery filmed its scenes in late 2022 after Strange New Worlds season 2 wrapped production.

Sharing sets is a Star Trek tradition going back to the 1990s Star Trek series.

This type of 'crossover' between Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has happened before . Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 2 , "Ad Astra Per Aspera" shot its courtroom scenes for Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley's (Rebecca Romijn) trial in Discovery 's Federation headquarters set. Sharing sets is a Star Trek tradition going back to the 1990s Star Trek series when Star Trek: The Next Generation , Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would film on each others' sets as a cost-saving measure.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country redressed Star Trek: The Next Generation 's 10 Forward set to become the office of the Federation President (Kurtwood Smith).

Can Discovery & Strange New Worlds Have A Real Star Trek Crossover?

It's unlikely, but not completely impossible..

Star Trek: Discovery season 1's finale and season 2 can be credited as the first Star Trek 'crossover' of the Paramount+ era when the USS Enterprise, Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck), and Number One joined the show. The trio proved so popular, fans clamored for them to receive their own spinoff set aboard the Starship Enterprise, which became Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . Star Trek: Discovery then jumped forward to the 32nd century, and it was a one-way trip that left the Enterprise and the 23rd century permanently behind. But can a Discovery and Strange New Worlds crossover still happen?

Yet there are possibilities for a Discovery and Strange New Worlds crossover.

There won't be a crossover with Star Trek: Discovery season 5 outside of Burnham, Book, Moll, and L'ak occupying the ISS Enterprise in "Mirrors" . Discovery season 5 has long since wrapped production and the hunt for the Progenitors' technology doesn't leave room for any time travel to see Strange New Worlds' characters . Yet there are possibilities for a Discovery and Strange New Worlds crossover. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 is in production and the series is renewed for season 4. Perhaps a way could be found to have Captain Burnham see Captain Pike and Spock one more time. Or both show's characters may meet on neutral ground through various sci-fi means on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy . Where there's a will, there's a way to still crossover Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5 stream Thursdays on Paramount+