Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ends with a shortened fifth season

Paramount+ has announced that the popular sci-fi series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been renewed for a fifth and final season. The final season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will consist of just six episodes, a significant reduction from previous seasons, which each consisted of 10 episodes. In a joint statement, executive producers Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers and Alex Kurtzman emphasized the series’ intention to remain true to Star Trek’s core values: curiosity, hope and belief in a better future. They thanked Paramount+ for the space to fully complete their five-season plan as originally intended, and commended the dedication of the cast, crew and fans.



While the announcement comes now, fans still have three full seasons to look forward to. Season three premieres Thursday, July 17 on Paramount+ (and Monday, August 4 on SkyShowtime), season four is already in production, and season five is set to begin filming later this year. Release dates for seasons four and five have not yet been announced, but the series will likely run until 2027 or even 2028.

As a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, it was always expected that the storylines surrounding Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and his crew would eventually tie into the timeline of the classic series. Now that the series' ending is set, the creative team has the opportunity to consciously wrap up this narrative. Goldsman has previously hinted that the team would like to transition to the TOS era within the remaining seasons.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds broke with the more serialized storytelling formats of Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard, returning to the classic episodic adventure format of the original 1966 series. It was well-received, becoming the most-watched Star Trek series on Paramount+ and even earning a nomination for Best Drama Series at the 2023 Critics Choice Awards.

However, the Star Trek franchise does not only have highlights. The recently released streaming film Star Trek: Section 31, a spin-off starring Michelle Yeoh as Empress Philippa Georgiou, was poorly received by critics and fans alike — even worse than the infamous 1989 movie Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

Although Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is coming to an end, there is still new life to come within the Star Trek universe. The next series, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, is in the works. Starring Holly Hunter as a Starfleet captain, the series will follow a new generation of cadets. Filming wrapped in February, and is scheduled to premiere in late 2025 or early 2026. Showrunner Noga Landau and Kurtzman describe it as an optimistic, funny, and emotionally rich series that will tap into the feelings and challenges of today’s generation of young people.