Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 arrives on June 15, 2023, and here are 7 things we can't wait to see when Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and the USS Enterprise return to Paramount+. Strange New Worlds is now, essentially, the flagship Star Trek series on Paramount+ with the endings of Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Discovery, which streams its fifth and final season in 2024. Strange New Worlds season 2 was produced in 2022, and it's been a long wait for fans to see the next chapter in the voyages of Pike's Starship Enterprise.

Strange New Worlds season 2 will consist of 10 episodes, which the cast and producers promise will take some "bold swings" after season 1 successfully returned Star Trek's episodic format to its classic glory. Strange New Worlds season 2 will continue its updated New Frontier optimism reminiscent of Star Trek: The Original Series. Strange New Worlds season 2 will also pick up where season 1 left off as the Enterprise adjusts to the losses of three main characters: Lt. Commander Una-Chin Riley (Rebecca Romijn), Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), and Lt. Hemmer (Bruce Horak). But when the Starship Enterprise boldly goes where no one has gone before in Strange New Worlds season 2, the following highly-anticipated events are already known will take place.

Related: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 Ending Explained (In Detail)

7 Lt. Pelia Joins The Starship Enterprise As The New Chief Engineer

Carol Kane as engineer Pelia in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Lt. Pelia (Carol Kane) joins the Starship Enterprise as its new Chief Engineer in Strange New Worlds season 2. Pelia replaces Lt. Hemmer, who sacrificed himself to save his crew matches from infant Gorn in Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 9, "All Those Who Wander." Although Hemmer was always intended to die, the blind Aenar engineer proved to be a breakout character. Hemmer's popularity led to Bruce Horak returning to Strange New Worlds season 2 as a new, unrevealed character.

Meanwhile, Pelia will succeed Hemmer in the Starship Enterprise's Engineering section, and it remains to be seen how the new Chief will impact the series. Strange New Worlds' cast is certainly excited to be joined by Carol Kane, a legend of stage and screen, and Pelia is expected to add a new humorous dynamic similar to Star Trek: Discovery's comic engineer, Lt. Jett Reno (Tig Notaro). Hemmer was a mentor to Cadet Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), so her reaction to Pelia will certainly be one to watch.

6 Erica Ortegas & Nurse Chapel's Strange New Worlds Spotlight Episodes

Ortegs Chapel Strange New Worlds

Strange New Worlds released one season 2 scene at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 that showed Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) denied her chance to join a landing party to Rigel VII. Ortegas, who has ties to classic Star Trek canon, became immensely popular thanks to her snarky interplay with Captain Pike and the rest of the crew. Fans were disappointed when Strange New Worlds season 1 failed to deliver an episode spotlighting the Enterprise's hotshot helmsman, but Melissa Navia has indicated fans' patience that Ortegas' story will be told in Strange New Worlds' season 2 will be rewarded.

The equally popular Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) also didn't receive her own spotlight episode in Strange New Worlds season 1. Although, fans saw plenty of the witty and capable Nurse Chapel thanks to her blistering love triangle with Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) and his Vulcan fiancée, T'Pring (Gia Sandhu). But Chapel did offer up dollops of her past in Strange New Worlds season 1 which made it even more paramount that Christine's backstory is revealed in Strange New Worlds season 2.

5 La'an Noonien-Singh Returns To The USS Enterprise

La'an Strange New Worlds Season 2

Strange New Worlds season 2's Comic-Con clip already confirmed that La'an Noonien-Singh returns to the Starship Enterprise. La'an is another new character who quickly became popular, and not even because she is the descendant of Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban). La'an's tough and no-nonsense exterior hides a complex character coping with the trauma of surviving a Gorn abduction as a child. La'an proved so capable as the Enterprise Security Chief that she served as Acting First Officer on more than one occasion. La'an also became a protégé of Captain Pike.

La'an resigned her commission and left the USS Enterprise at the conclusion of Strange New Worlds episode 9, "All Those Who Wander." La'an's new mission was to reunite a young girl who was also abducted by the Gorn to her family. It's unclear how and when La'an comes back to the Enterprise and if she will resume her duties as Chief of Security in Strange New Worlds season 2. There are also hints that La'an will come to embrace the aspects of Khan embedded in her DNA.

4 What Happens To Number One In Strange New Worlds Season 2?

Una Chin Riley Strange New Worlds Number One

Strange New Worlds season 1 concluded with a shocking cliffhanger of Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley being arrested by Starfleet after she is outed as a genetically engineered Illyrian. The original version of Number One played by Majel Barrett in Star Trek's original pilot, "The Cage," never received a backstory until Strange New Worlds, which tied Una's history with the controversial topic of eugenics in Star Trek. Una lied to Starfleet about being Illyrian, but she was discovered and taken from the Enterprise in irons.

What happens next to Una, and whether she will return as the Starship Enterprise's Number One, is perhaps the biggest question for Strange New Worlds season 2 to immediately answer. In the alternate future seen in Strange New Worlds season 1's finale, Una spent years in prison with no visitors allowed. Hopefully, that won't be the fate of Number One in Strange New Worlds season 2.

3 Sybok & Captain Angel Could Return In Strange New Worlds Season 2

Sybok Strange New Worlds

Strange New Worlds episode 7, "The Serene Squall," introduced two fascinating adversaries for the Starship Enterprise, one new and one a returning legacy character. Posing as Dr. Aspen, a space pirate named Captain Angel (Jesse James Keitel) hijacked the Enterprise. Her ultimate goal was to coerce the release of her husband, Xaverius, from a Vulcan rehabilitation center run by T'Pring. But after Spock and Nurse Chapel foiled Captain Angel, the Science Officer deduced the true identity of Xaverius: he is really Spock's half-brother, Sybok.

Sybok (Lawrence Luckinbill) was created as the villain of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and the Vulcan heretic died at the end to save his brother, Spock. The reintroduction of a younger and potentially more twisted and dangerous Sybok was one of Strange New Worlds season 1's most surprising and excitingly bold moves. Captain Angel escaped capture and promised she would return. Hopefully, it means Angel will spring Sybok so the duo can threaten Spock and the USS Enterprise in Strange New Worlds season 2.

2 Lt. James T. Kirk Joins Strange New Worlds Season 2

Pike Kirk Strange New Worlds Season 1 Finale

Before Strange New Worlds season 1 premiered on Paramount+ in May 2022, Paul Wesley was announced to join the season 2 cast as Lt. James T. Kirk. (And the actor even received the blessing of the original Kirk, William Shatner.) Wesley then surprised audiences by appearing as an alternate future Captain Kirk in Strange New Worlds season 1's finale. This encounter with Captain Kirk in a now-deleted timeline is what prompted Pike to consider the younger Lt. Kirk as a potential future Captain of the Enterprise.

The Captain Kirk Paul Wesley played in Strange New Worlds' season 1 ender, "A Quality of Mercy," was a different character from the brash and relatively inexperienced Lt. Kirk Wesley will play in season 2. How Lt. Kirk will mix with the crew of the Enterprise, the starship he is destined to command, is anyone's guess. One big moment not yet seen in Star Trek's Prime Universe canon is how Kirk and Spock, who will eventually become legendary best friends, meet. This monumental event will finally be depicted in Strange New Worlds season 2.

1 Strange New Worlds' Crossover With Star Trek: Lower Decks

Mariner and Boimler of Lower Decks on the bridge of the Enterprise in Strange New Worlds with Captain Pike seated

Perhaps the biggest Strange New Worlds news from San Diego Comic-Con 2022 was the announcement of a crossover episode with Star Trek: Lower Decks. Directed by Jonathan Frakes, the crossover will be a flat-out comedy that is expected to mix live-action and animation, as well as feature dialogue penned by Lower Decks' showrunner, Mike McMahan.

But the Strange New Worlds / Star Trek: Lower Decks crossover's main attraction will be Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome coming aboard the Starship Enterprise to play their Lower Decks characters, Ensigns Bradward Boimler and Beckett Mariner, in live-action. There's no telling what will happen as the 24th-century Ensigns from the USS Cerritos cross paths with the 23rd-century legends of the USS Enterprise, but the crossover is poised to be an all-time classic Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 episode.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 premieres June 15, 2023, on Paramount+.