Discovery’s third season. Picard about to begin. Short Treks underway. Even looking ahead beyond those, we know Michelle Yeoh’s Section 31 spinoff is coming, and that’s even before you get to Star Trek animation. But hold the phone: The engines can indeed take it, cap’n, because there’s even more Trek TV coming our way.
That’s according to Star Trek’s current overseer Alex Kurtzman at least, who casually dropped the revelation that there are currently two unannounced live-action Star Trek shows in the works in a new interview conducted alongside his Star Trek producing partner Heather Kadin with TrekCore.
“[Section 31 is] in active development. So that’s obviously a huge priority; Michelle [Yeoh’s] character [Georgiou] is so unique, and you’ve never seen that before,” Kadin began, when the topic of upcoming shows within the franchise came up. “Again, it has to fall under the guise of, ‘is this [show] a unique space we haven’t explored yet? And then also, the animated shows [Lower Decks and the untitled Nickelodeon project] are also really going to provide that too. For someone like me, who gets to work on these shows—and then two nights a week, go watch a cut of Lower Decks—it’s a blast. So I hope we continue to find those new avenues.”
“There are two more live action shows that haven’t been announced yet,” Kurtzman added, so we at least know a few of those new avenues will be explored beyond the realms of animation. This should be of no real surprise, of course. Star Trek’s revival in Discovery has done very well for CBS, and we’ve known for a while that Kurtzman’s five-year plan to oversee a new era of the franchise on television would bring with it multiple new series and spinoffs.
Given the breadth of what we’re already getting—an entirely new Trek ongoing in Discovery, a bold sequel series in Picard, supporting spinoffs like Section 31 and the Short Treks anthologies, and then two wildly different tonal approaches to the franchise in Lower Decks and the Nick show—it’s interesting to ponder just what else could currently be under consideration at CBS.
More familiar faces returning and connections to current and past shows, or hopefully, series that feel entirely new, and deal with concepts we’ve been dying to see explored in Star Trek ever since this wild endeavour began?
Star Trek’s future at the box office might be in the weirdest limbo it’s been for a while, but on the small screen, the future’s looking incredibly bright.