Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will kick off Paramount+’s 2026 slate with a January premiere date. Set in the 32nd century, the far future of the franchise, the show follows the first new class of Starfleet cadets in over a century, following Starfleet and the Federation of Planets recovering from a cataclysmic event depicted in Star Trek: Discovery Season 3. While the series largely stars new up-and-coming actors, it also features established stars, including Holly Hunter as the Chancellor of Starfleet Academy and captain of the USS Athena, and Paul Giamatti as the series’ lead villain.
At New York Comic-Con 2025, Paramount unveiled the latest trailer for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which is available to watch below. The series will debut on Paramount+ starting Jan. 15, 2026, with a two-episode premiere. The panel also confirmed, via Variety, that late-night talk show host and comedian Stephen Colbert would be joining the cast of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy as the voice of the Academy’s Digital Dean of Students, giving the cadets their morning announcements.
A Mix of New and Old Characters on Display in ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’
The trailer for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy emphasizes the new young cast but also features plenty of fan-favorite returning characters. Mary Wiseman will reprise her role as Tilly from Star Trek: Discovery, and we’ll also be reunited with Tig Notaro as Jett Reno, a former Engineer aboard the USS Discovery. Robert Picardo will reprise his role as the holographic program the Doctor, introduced in Star Trek: Voyager and returning in Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2. While Stephen Colbert isn’t shown in the trailer, it sounds like his voice cameo will be similar to Rachel Maddow’s in the CW Batwoman series.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy also reveals that She-Hulk: Attorney at Law star Tatiana Maslany will play the mother of young cadet Caleb (Sandro Rosta). Caleb appears to have a vendetta against Giamatti’s Nus Braka for taking his mother away. Other characters introduced include a young Klingon named Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diané), a Betazoid named Tarima Sadal (Zoë Steiner), Kasqian known as Sam (Kerrice Brooks), a Dar-Sha cadet named Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard), and a Khionian cadet named Darem Reymi (George Hawkins).
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1 will run for ten episodes and conclude on Mar. 12, 2026. Starfleet Academy has already been renewed for Season 2, which likely will debut in 2027. This potentially means that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 will likely debut sometime in summer 2026. This has been a bit of a rough year for Star Trek fans, with the abysmal response to the Paramount+ streaming film Star Trek: Section 31 and a disappointing reaction to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3. Next year could see the franchise bounce back with Starfleet Academy leading the way.
- Release Date
-
May 24, 2024
- Network
-
Paramount+
- Writers
-
Gaia Violo, Gene Roddenberry
-
-
-
Karim Diane
Jay-Den Kraag
-
Kerrice Brooks
Series Acclimation Mil ‘Sam’
