Summary

• Star Trek is in a transitional period in 2024, with the final season of Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Prodigy moving to Netflix.
• Paramount+ is rethinking its Star Trek strategy, focusing on made-for-streaming movies that feel like blockbuster events.
• The future still looks bright for Star Trek despite these changes, with upcoming seasons of Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds, and potential new theatrical movies in development.

Star Trek has an impressively robust lineup of film and television series in development, from the end of Star Trek: Discovery to the beginning of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. 2022 saw a new episode from 5 new Star Trek series streaming on Paramount+ nearly every Thursday of the year. 2023 saw the critically acclaimed ending of Star Trek: Picard, the lauded Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, and Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, perhaps the best run of the animated comedy yet.

Star Trek is in a transitional period in 2024. The upcoming Star Trek: Discovery season 5 will be its last, while Star Trek: Prodigy moved to Netflix. Reflecting industry-wide changes in streaming content, Paramount+ is also said to be rethinking its Star Trek strategy, starting with an expansion into made-for-streaming movies that are designed to feel like blockbuster events. Meanwhile, there is no movement on Star Trek: Legacy, the spinoff of Picard sought after by fans and the cast and creatives of the Patrick Stewart-led series. While another moment of change seems imminent for the franchise, the future still looks bright for Star Trek.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

Premieres April 2024 on Paramount+

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is the show's final season. Star Trek: Discovery has a devoted fan base and should always be remembered as the show that saved Star Trek to ignited the franchise's renaissance. However, Discovery is also now an older series - five seasons for a streaming show is a minor miracle - which means it's getting more expensive to produce in an era where streamers are looking to cut costs, and this is likely a contributing factor to Paramount+ closing the curtain on Star Trek: Discovery.

Since it wasn't initially designed to be the final season, Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is a reset to a more adventurous tone as Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the USS Discovery go on an intergalactic treasure hunt, running afoul of various new aliens adversaries. Reshoots conducted in spring 2023 added a poignant epilogue that brings closure to Star Trek; Discovery. Following its March world premiere at SXSW, Star Trek: Discovery's final 10 episodes will stream on Paramount+ starting in April.

The two-part series finale of Star Trek: Discovery is directed by Jonathan Frakes and Olatunde Osunsanmi.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5

Expected to premiere late summer/early fall on Paramount+

Star Trek: Lower Decks is the only other Star Trek series on Paramount+'s 2024 schedule, and it's also delivering its 5th (but hopefully not last) season. Mike McMahan's animated comedy was creatively firing full phaser banks in Lower Decks season 4, promoting the Lower Deckers of the USS Cerritos to junior grade Lieutenants and homaging Star Trek: Voyager's "Tuvix," visiting Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's new Ferengi Grand Nagus, and tying Lt. Beckett Mariner's (Tawny Newsome) backstory to the animated show's namesake, the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Lower Decks". Star Trek: Lower Decks has won over most fans as a definitive and very appreciated part of the Star Trek franchise.

Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4's viewership hopefully benefited from Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid playing Ensigns Beckett Mariner and Brad Boimler in live-action in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' comedic crossover episode.

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2

Premiering on Netflix in 2024

Star Trek: Prodigy rallied ardent fan support to secure Netflix as its new streaming home after Paramount+ unexpectedly canceled the beloved all-ages CGI animated series. Netflix released all 20 episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy season 1 on Christmas Day 2023, and it quickly charted in the Top 10 Kids shows, which bodes well for the yet unspecified 2024 release of Star Trek: Prodigy season 2. The next 20 episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy launches Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and the heroic alien teenage crew of the USS Protostar, now Starfleet warrant officers, on a new time travel rescue mission aboard the USS Voyager-A. Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 promises to be even more epic and will tap into every other iteration of Star Trek in the franchise.

The Doctor (Robert Picardo) from Star Trek: Voyager joins Star Trek: Prodigy season 2, and he's just one of many surprise guest stars and callbacks.

Star Trek: Section 31

The first made-for-streaming on Paramount+ Star Trek movie

Long discussed as the premise for an ongoing series, the Section 31 project is now set to be the first Star Trek original movie for Paramount+, and the Section 31 film is said to delve into the origin and secrets of Starfleet's insidious black ops agency. Star Trek: Section 31 will star Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh reprising her anti-heroine Emperor Philippa Georgiou, the former ruler of the Mirror Universe. Once a ruthless despot, Georgiou's time in Star Trek's Prime universe with Michael Burnham taught her compassion, although Georgiou remains crafty and dangerous. Star Trek: Section 31 is directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi from a screenplay by Craig Sweeney, and it filmed in winter 2024 for a possible release later in 2024 on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Section 31 is hopefully the first of a new wave of made-for-Paramount+ Star Trek movies to be released every 2 years.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

The next Star Trek TV series in development at Paramount+

Another long-gestating project, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was officially announced in early 2023. Details about the YA-aimed series, developed by Star Trek executive producer Alex Kurtzman and Nancy Drew writer Noga Landau, are still under wraps. What little plot information that's been made available suggests Starfleet Academy will likely be set in the post-Star Trek: Discovery 32nd century and will spotlight a diverse assortment of alien and human teenage Cadets, with possible guest starring roles from familiar Discovery faces. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy doesn't have a release date, but production is slated to start in 2024 with a potential 2025 release date.

Star Trek: Lower Decks' Tawny Newsome, a self-described Star Trek "continuity cop," is part of Starfleet Academy's writer's room.

3 Potential New Star Trek Theatrical Movies

But which of these Star Trek movies will get made?

Theatrical Star Trek movies have been in limbo since Star Trek Beyond bowed in 2016, but recent announcements indicate Paramount Pictures is finally moving ahead with 2 potential new Star Trek projects. Director Toby Haynes (Star Wars: Andor) and writer Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) are reportedly developing a Star Trek origin film set "decades before" J.J. Abrams' Star Trek (2009) movie. Abrams' Star Trek 4 is also still in development as "the final chapter" of Chris Pine's Star Trek movie saga, although no writer or director have been announced. Meanwhile, Patrick Stewart has been vocal about wanting a Star Trek: Picard follow-up movie but, despite rumors, there's no indication that it will happen.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3

In production now

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 finally began production in December 2023 after being delayed 7 months by the combined WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. The next 10 episodes of Strange New Worlds are slated to film until May 2024. While Strange New Worlds season 3's premiere will pick up and resolve the Gorn cliffhanger of Strange New Worlds season 2 finale, the contents of the rest of the episodes are top-secret but should continue the "big swings" into different genres that made season 2 so memorable. Whether or not Paramount+ will release any part of Strange New Worlds season 3 in late 2024 or hold everything back to be the centerpiece of Star Trek in 2025 remains to be seen.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 premieres on Paramount+ in April 2024.

Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 premieres on Paramount+ later in 2024.

Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 premieres on Netflix in 2024.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 is in production to be released on Paramount+.