Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Renewed for Fifth and Final Season
In a surprise move, Paramount+ has announced that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been renewed for a fifth and final season, just over a month before the third season premieres on the streamer on July 17. According to Variety, the concluding season will consist of six episodes, a departure from the 10-episode seasons that have come before.
The executive producers of the show, Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers, and Alex Kurtzman, expressed their gratitude to Paramount+ for allowing them to complete their five-season mission. In a joint statement, they said: "We are deeply grateful to Paramount+ for the chance to complete our five-season mission, just as we envisioned it, alongside our extraordinary cast and crew." They also praised the fans for joining them on this journey, saying: "From the very beginning, ‘Strange New Worlds’ set out to honor what ‘Star Trek’ has always stood for — boundless curiosity, hope and the belief that a better future is possible."
As a prequel series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has always been clear about its ultimate destination. The show takes place during the years when Capt. Christopher Pike led the USS Enterprise, before James T. Kirk took command, as depicted in the original Star Trek series in the 1960s. On the original series, Pike is introduced as a man who has been horribly disfigured and paralyzed, and on Strange New Worlds, Pike knows of his eventual tragic fate even as he forges ahead as the Enterprise’s captain.
The statement from Goldsman, Myers, and Kurtzman suggests that the series will deal with the full story of what caused Pike’s accident in some meaningful way. However, the question remains as to when this event will occur on the show in relation to the series finale, especially considering the reduced episode count for Season 5. Variety reports that the showrunners have hinted that they would like to continue telling stories about the characters, potentially setting up a spin-off series.
In fact, Myers told Variety in 2022 that he "would love nothing more" than to continue the story of the TOS-era Enterprise. Goldsman also expressed his desire to continue the story, saying: "given our druthers — because Henry and I are both greedy and gluttons for punishment — we’d go right into the TOS era and see what happens." This suggests that the Strange New Worlds story may not be over yet, even with the fifth and final season.
Fans will have to wait a while for Season 5 to arrive, however. Season 4 is currently in production and is likely to premiere in mid-to-late 2026. Variety reports that the show is produced by CBS Studios, Secret Hideout, and Roddenberry Entertainment, with a team of executive producers including Aaron Baiers, Dana Horgan, Alan McElroy, Robbie Thompson, Frank Siracusa, John Weber, Chris Fisher, Anson Mount, Rod Roddenberry, and Trevor Roth. As reported by Variety, the show has been a critical and commercial success, and it will be interesting to see how the story concludes in the final season.
