UPDATE: WATCH: New Trailer For ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’; Surprise New Casting And Release Date Revealed
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
This afternoon the showrunners and members of the cast of the upcoming series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will appear on stage at New York Comic Con. To get things going Paramount+ has teased elements of the show to EW and on a new interactive website.
More backstory and new images
A new exclusive article at Entertainment Weekly includes some new details as well as a few preview images from the show. The article has a focus on the character of Caleb Mir, who we first learned about at San Diego Comic-Con. It appears the “outsider” character of Mir is a central character for the show, with this new bit of backstory, via EW:
“Sandro Rosta stars as Caleb Mir, an orphan who’s been searching for his mother (Tatiana Maslany) for a long time, not knowing if she’s alive or dead. He realizes his best shot to find her is to join Starfleet Academy.”
There is a new image of Rosta on the USS Athena, which is a ship that is also part of the school. And if you look closely, you can see Discovery vet Tig Notaro as Jett Reno, sitting in the command chair. Notaro is jumping from Discovery to Academy as a series regular, with Jett Reno as a member of the faculty of Starfleet Academy. Also making that transition is Oded Fehr as Admiral Vance in a recurring role, as well as Mary Wiseman as Tilly, although she is reportedly only appearing in one episode in the first season.
Tig Notaro as Jett Reno, Sandro Rosta as Caleb Mir, and Romeo Carere as Ocam on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (Brooke Palmer/Paramount+)
Emmy-winner Tatiana Maslany was one of the late casting announcements for the series and her character had been a bit of a mystery. She was shown in the previews and trailer released at San Diego Comic-Con over the summer, but not until now did we know about her character’s connection to Caleb Mir. You can see the image of her released at SDCC below.
L-R: Tatiana Maslany and Luciano Fernandez in season 1, episode 1 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (Brooke Palmer/Paramount+)
The EW article also hypes the interaction between Maslany, series star and Oscar-winner Holly Hunter (Academy Chancellor and Captain Nahla Ake), and Oscar-nominee Paul Giamatti, who plays Nus Braka, a Klingon-Tellarite hybrid and the main villain for the first season. Executive producer Alex Kurtzman tells EW: “The second scene of the pilot is Tatiana, Holly, and Paul together. Just the firepower in the scene is so extraordinary.”
The EW piece also includes a new image of Giamatti’s Braka and Hunter’s Ake.
Paul Giamatti as Nus Braka and Holly Hunter as Chancellor Nahla Ake on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (Brooke Palmer/Paramount+)
The EW article includes some insights into what may be a breakout character, S.A.M. (Series Acclimation Mil) “a newborn hologram and the first of her kind to enroll in Starfleet.” Kurtzman reveals they changed the character to match high-energy actress Kerrice Brooks. “The character of S.A.M. was not written for Kerrice in any way. She was a very different character originally,” Kurtzman says to EW. “In the very first round for S.A.M., we saw a bunch of actors and none of them were quite right. Then we saw Kerrice, who had a very different voice than the character that was written. Noga and I called each other and we were like, ‘We are in the presence of a genius. We actually need to rewrite the character for her.’ And so we did. We cast her right away, and then we adjusted the voice for Kerrice.”
You can see SAM along with some of the other main cadet characters below in a new image.
George Hawkins as Darem Reymi, Kerrice Brooks as S.A.M., and Sandro Rosta as Caleb Mir on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (John Medland/Paramount+)
And the showrunners made it clear that the stakes are high in Starfleet Academy, especially with the inclusion of the USS Athena (likened to a teaching hospital) as part of the school. Kurtzman’s co-showrunner Noga Landau tells EW: “It’s hard to come up with a circumstance and a buy-in where you can still have Star Trek adventures with real stakes and real peril, but it’s also a school. It’s really important that viewers know that these kids actually go on real Star Trek missions and there is real Star Trek peril and complex situations that they have to navigate.”
The first season of Starfleet Academy debuts in “early 2026,” (maybe January), with the second season already in production. There’s more about Starfleet Academy in the preview at EW.
Visit the campus at new SFA site
Today also saw the launch of a new interactive Starfleet Academy portal as part of the official Star Trek site. Presented as a sort of in-universe look at Starfleet Academy there are sections for “Our Mission,” “Campus Life,” Meet the Faculty” and “Enrollment.”
Menu from new SFA portal at startrek.com
Perusing the site gives you insight into what its like to be a cadet, including some of the clubs and activities you can partake in, including the “Association of Cardassian Cadets” and a “Camping Expedition to Cestus III”
From new SFA portal at startrek.com
The site reveals more about the campus, including references to the “Uhura Pavilion” and “Sato Atrium.” There are also some new images of the campus and ship.
“Athena-Campus” from new SFA portal at startrek.com
“SF-Campus” from new SFA portal at startrek.com
“Classroom” from new SFA portal at startrek.com
“Lab” from new SFA portal at startrek.com
You can even enroll, which presents you with a personalized badge.
Join the Academy at new SFA portal at startrek.com
For more visit startrek.com/StarfleetAcademy.
Watch the panel live
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is set to debut in “early 2026,” but we will likely get a release date and much more today during the Star Trek Universe panel being held on the Empire Stage on Saturday, Oct. 11, 3:15-4:15 PM, ET. And Paramount+ is hosting a live stream of the panel on YouTube.
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
