Star Trek - Strange New Worlds release date: Release date, trailer and cast

“In a career, there is never enough work that is pure joy. I feel that my friend Alex Kurtzman along with David Stapf at CBS Studios and Julie McNamara at Paramount+ have given me just that by letting me haunt the stock rooms of my favorite candy store and I am grateful,” said Akiva Goldsman, co-showrunner and executive producer. “With a hell of a cast and undying love for The Original Series, we boldly go.”

“I’m incredibly grateful to be working alongside Akiva and our brilliant, multi-faceted cast to help bring the adventures of the Starship Enterprise to new life,” added Henry Alonso Myers, co-showrunner and executive producer. "For someone who’s been dreaming of spaceships and alien worlds since I was little, this show is a dream come true.”

Anson Mount (Pike), Ethan Peck (Spock) and Rebecca Romijn (Number One) made their debuts as the characters in season two of Star Trek: Discovery, taking on the roles originally played by Jeffrey Hunter, Leonard Nimoy and Majel Barrett in the 1960s.

Fan response to these new interpretations of classic characters was strong, with many Trek aficionados calling for the trio to be handed their own spin-off – and it seems CBS was listening.

"When we said we heard the fans’ outpouring of love for Pike, Number One and Spock when they boarded Star Trek: Discovery last season, we meant it,” said executive producer Alex Kurtzman. "These iconic characters have a deep history in Star Trek’s canon, yet so much of their stories have yet to be told."

The series premiere for the new show, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, will be written by Akiva Goldsman (Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard) with the story by Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, and Jenny Lumet who will also serve as executive producers alongside Henry Alonso Myers, Heather Kadin, Rod Roddenberry, and Trevor Roth.

Kurtzman has hinted that Strange New Worlds will be a departure from the types of Trek stories we've seen of late, with an optimistic tone and more episodic storytelling style helping to differentiate it from both Discovery and Picard.

Here's all the essential info on the new spin-off:

Star Trek Strange New Worlds series

The synopsis for the new spin-off reads: "Strange New Worlds will follow the crew in the decade before Captain Kirk boarded the USS. Enterprise, as they explore new worlds around the galaxy."

So while details are scant, it appears Strange New Worlds will bridge the gap between Pike, Spock and Number One's encounter with the Discovery crew and the events of the Star Trek: The Original Series story 'The Menagerie' which revealed Pike's ultimate (grisly) fate.

Alex Kurtzman has also revealed that the series will feature more "standalone episodes" and be less arc-based than other modern Star Trek shows, harkening back to the format of The Original Series.

"I think Strange New Worlds, under the guidance of Henry Myers and Akiva Goldsman, it’s going to be a return in a way to TOS," he told Deadline.

"We are going to do standalone episodes. There will be emotional serialization. There will be two-parters. There will be larger plot arcs. But it really is back to the model of alien-of-the-week, planet-of-the-week, challenge-on-the-ship-of-the-week. With these characters pre-Kirk’s Enterprise."

He added: "I think what people responded so much to in all three characters is this kind of relentless optimism that they have. And that they are at the young phase of their careers."

Star Trek Strange New Worlds cast

Anson Mount will reprise his role of Captain Christopher Pike, first played by Jeffrey Hunter in the unaired Star Trek pilot 'The Cage' in 1965 and later by Sean Kenney in 'The Menagerie', with Bruce Greenwood also playing a version of the character in the films Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013),

Ethan Peck will once again play Mr. Spock, following in the footsteps of Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto, with Rebecca Romijn taking up the role of Number One as originated by Majel Barrett.

Joining these returnees will be Babs Olusanmokun (Black Mirror, Dune), Christina Chong (Tom and Jerry, Black Mirror), Celia Rose Gooding (Jagged Little Pill), Jess Bush (Skinford, Les Norton), and Melissa Navia (Dietland, Billions), all of whom will feature as series regulars.

A teaser video featuring the series’ cast was released in March 2021 to mark the beginning of production.

Star Trek Strange New Worlds release date

There's no premiere date yet set for Strange New Worlds – the series was first announced in 2020, only for TV and film production to face an almost total shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Production on the series finally got underway in Toronto, Canada, March 2021, meaning we could be looking at an early 2022 launch.

Star Trek Strange New Worlds UK: Will it be on Netflix?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will be available to Paramount Plus (formerly CBS All-Access) subscribers in the US, as with all Trek series since the launch of Discovery in 2017.

There's no word yet on a UK broadcaster – though Discovery debuted Netflix in the UK and was later broadcast on E4, the recent Star Trek: Picard landed on Amazon Prime Video, so it's possible that Strange New Worlds will also go to the highest bidder, which could be Netflix, or Amazon, or some other platform.

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