First discussed by the famous Star Trek II director in June 2022, the long-gestating prequel series to the legendary Trek film is finally coming to fans — in podcast form.
Director Nicholas Meyer, who helmed Star Trek II and Star Trek VI for the franchise, announced officially during today’s Star Trek Day presentation that a new scripted podcast focusing on the life of Khan Noonien Singh — and his genetically engineered band of augmented humans — on planet Ceti Alpha V during the years between “Space Seed” and The Wrath of Khan.
The Khan idea was originally pitched as a limited series back in 2018, and Meyer even wrote a trilogy of television episodes covering the story — but for “reasons beyond my or Alex Kurtzman’s control,” he said on the Star Trek Day stage, it didn’t move forward at that time.
The official announcement:
STAR TREK: KHAN – CETI ALPHA V is a scripted podcast which will examine what happened in the years after Captain Kirk left Khan on the untamed world of Ceti Alpha V and tells the story of Khan and his followers prior to “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”
“Nick made the definitive ‘Trek’ movie when he made ‘Wrath,’ and we’ve all been standing in its shadow since,” said Alex Kurtzman. “Forty years have offered him a lot of perspective on these extraordinary characters and the way they’ve impacted generations of fans. Now he’s come up with something as surprising, gripping and emotional as the original, and it’s a real honor to be able to let him tell the next chapter in this story exactly the way he wants to.”
This original story hails from “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” writer and director, Nicholas Meyer. Alex Kurtzman, Aaron Baiers, Trevor Roth and Rod Roddenberry will serve as executive producers on this project as well. “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” celebrates its 40th anniversary this year and was recently back in theatres as part of the TCM Big Screen Classic series, in partnership with Paramount Home Entertainment and Fathom Events.
The pre-Star Trek II Khan story has been told twice in literary form to date, first in the 2000 IDW Comic series Khan: Ruling in Hell and later Greg Cox’s 2005 novel To Reign in Hell.
No start date was announced for the debut of Star Trek: Khan – Ceti Alpha V, but we’ll be sure to share that information with you as soon as we know more!
In addition, the official Star Trek podcast — The Pod Directive, hosted by Tawny Newsome and Paul F. Tompkins — will return in early 2023 with new episodes.
Keep checking back to TrekCore for the latest in Star Trek audio drama news!