A daybreak of a brand new future, a rousing speech from a Federation captain, a younger squad of cadets mixing and mingling, a number of references to Deep House 9 and Voyager… if the previous couple of years of latest Star Trek wasn’t for you, Starfleet Academy is working arduous to win you again.
At Saturday’s epically sized Star Trek Universe panel out of the 2025 San Diego Comedian-Con, Starfleet Academy co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau took to the stage to introduce the latest present to the slate. Whereas a Muppet model of Unusual New Worlds feels like a hoot and a story podcast centered on Khan might efficiently indulge the TOS nostalgia in a method that Star Trek Into Darkness couldn’t, SDCC is at all times probably the most thrilling when one thing recent hits the stage. Starfleet Academy has been lengthy anticipated because it was introduced in 2023and now we have now our first take a look at the 2026 sequence, and a style for what’s in retailer for season 1.
Set within the Star Trek: Discovery timeline of the thirty second century — deep breaths! — Starfleet Academy picks up after the Federation’s coaching program accepts a brand new class of cadets after a 120-year hiatus. Very similar to Saved by the Bell: The School Yearsthe varsity seems populated by younger sizzling people who find themselves each striving for fulfillment however are extraordinarily hormonal, alien species be damned. The legendary Holly Hunter leads the solid as Nahla Ake, the Chancellor of Starfleet Academy and Captain of the usS. Athena, “who additionally occurs to be a long-lived half-Lanthanite,” in keeping with Paramount (and who offers the large speech over the trailer). And none apart from Paul Giamatti is popping up because the season’s villain Nus Braka, a component Klingon, half Tellarite do-badder “with an ominous previous linked to certainly one of our cadets.”
Who’re the cadets? Right here’s the official rundown of latest recruits:
The actual pleasure right here is watching the historical past of Trek collide in a brand new location. A few of it’s blunt power fan-service: Robert Picardo is again as The Physician from Voyagerwhereas Tig Notaro reprises her position as Jett Reno from Discovery. But it surely’s the little issues that made me yelp. “James T. Kirk Pavilion.” A wall of names of these key figures who’ve formed Starfleet. A quiz on the life and instances of 1 Benjamin Sisko.
A fast shot on the finish additionally introduces a brand new character: Recurring visitor star Gina Yashere as Commander Lura Thok, the chancellor’s First Officer and Cadet Grasp. Brace your self: Lura is a Klingon-Jem’Hadar hybrid!
Let’s dwell on how that occurred till Starfleet Academy premieres in “early 2026.”