Production on the third season of the Star Trek prequel series Strange New Worlds is currently in the works, and Paramount+ has given the greenlight for that show to boldly voyage into a fourth year. That one has proven the most popular of the new Trek shows on the streaming service, spending seven weeks in the Nielsen Streaming Rankings during its second season run. The renewal comes as no surprise despite the fact that Paramount+ has been going through cost-cutting and previously cancelled Star Trek: Prodigy (though that is moving over to Netflix) and announced that the upcoming fifth season of Star Trek: Discovery will be its last. Strange New Worlds has been considered the most faithful of the recent Trek shows to the original spirit of the franchise, even though it has tinkered with cannon to an extent and produced some rather odd episodes like the crossover with Lower Decks and the musical ep. The third season of the show is expected to premiere later this year or early 2025.
As for the animated comedy Star Trek: Lower Decks which takes place in the TNG timeline, that will be wrapping up with its fifth season. That announcement does not come as a surprise as showrunner Mike McMahan previously suggested that the fifth season could be its last. But after the announcement, McMahon and executive producer Alex Kurtzman did hint that the characters could return at some point in the future:
We remain hopeful that even beyond Season 5, Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford and the whole Cerritos crew will live on with new adventures. While five seasons of any series these days seems like a miracle, it’s no exaggeration to say that every second we’ve spent making this show has been a dream come true.
They are correct that five seasons and fifty episodes is a notable run for a streaming original these days, and the show will at least get the chance to wrap up its storylines. Season 5 is currently expected to premiere in Fall 2024.
Lower Decks is already counting as renewed for the current season and Strange New Worlds counted for the 2022-23 season and will not be back until the 2024-25 season, so neither of these announcements impact this year’s Cancellation/Renewal Score. We currently stand at 21 renewed sci fi and fantasy entries (40% of shows tracked) vs. ten cancelled and ending (19%). You can see the breakdown of the numbers and the full list of shows for the current and prior seasons at our Cancellation Watch Page.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds takes place on the U.S.S. Enterprise in the years before Captain James T. Kirk commanded the ship. Captain Christopher Pike is in control with his first officer Number One, science officer Mr. Spock, ship’s doctor Joseph M’Benga, and more as they explore strange new worlds and seek out new lives and civilizations. It stars Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, and Babs Olusanmokun.
Star Trek: Lower Decks focuses on the junior officers of the U.S.S. Cerritos: Beckett Mariner, Brad Boimler, D’Vana Tendi and Sam Rutherford, and it is set in the years following the feature film Star Trek: Nemesis, as they maneuver the politics and boredom of working on the lower decks. It stars Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, Eugene Cordero, and Dawnn Lewis.
We are approaching the end of the broadcast network regular season and I expect more announcements to come over the next month. You can see the status of all this season’s shows at this link. And be sure to follow this site and the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for updates and breaking news.
Be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates. And for the latest news and discussions on sci fi and fantasy television, follow r/SciFiTV
Follow our Sci Fi TV Schedule for all the currently airing and upcoming sci fi and fantasy television shows, and you can see the premieres for all the upcoming genre entries at this link.
The show is merely Okay IMHO. I think at this point SNW is more popular simply due to the lowered standards and expectation erosion that is characteristic of Kurtzman Trek more than story quality.
It has some really brilliant episodes (“A Quality of Mercy”) and then some really bad ones (“Spock Amok”), so it is very hit and miss for me so far. I don’t care for the CGI overload either. The best Trek was never about dazzling special effects, it was about interesting stories and characters.