The cast and creatives behind Star Trek: Strange New Worlds hit the Television Critics Association press tour today, and along with the new poster we showed you earlier this afternoon, shared some tantalizing new details into the upcoming series that are sure to have fans talking all Spring.
While not much in the way of story-specifics were revealed, no surprise given that we’re still over three months away from the show’s May 5 premiere on Paramount+, a few nuggets from the show’s creatives did make waves — starting with the confirmation that Christina Chong’s character La’an Noonien-Singh is (as only speculated previously) most definitely related to the genetic superman himself, Khan Noonien Singh.
“She’s related to Khan, for sure,” said series co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman (as reported by Decider’s Alex Zalben on Twitter), directly tying her character to James Kirk’s nemesis in “Space Seed” and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. “Canon is almost always delightfully challenging, unless it’s a pain in the ass,” Goldsman also said, per Zalben’s reporting, indicating that the writing team does their best to adhere to canon unless that gets in the way of storytelling requirements.
Co-showrunner Henry Alonso Meyers also spoke about the canon question, as reported by StarTrek.com, saying that the writers “take canon very seriously on the show because we don’t want to break it, but we also want to have fun with it.”
Beyond that, there were also hints that the cast has pitched something special that ties into the wider Star Trek canon, but they can’t talk about — as it seems to be something that the show will actually be doing at some point in either Season 1 or the just-about-to-start-filming Season 2.
"There is another one, but I'm going to be tight lipped about that," Kurtzman says on further #StarTrek series beyond SECTION 31, which was teased earlier #TCA22
— Alex Zalben (@azalben) February 1, 2022
Speaking of the wider franchise, Star Trek head honcho Alex Kurtzman continued to tease that there are more Trek shows still in development, including one he’s been hinting at since we talked to him at the Star Trek: Picard press tour in January 2020.
Whether that is the long-rumored Starfleet Academy show (which Kurtzman also briefly name-checked at Star Trek Day in September) or something else, Kurtzman isn’t talking.
Michelle Yeoh’s Section 31 spin-off — first announced in January 2019 — still has some kind of life to it, at least, as Paramount+’s head of scripted programming Nicole Clemens said earlier today that development continues and some news on that show should be coming “soon,” but still nothing concrete past the it’s-still-alive standpoint.
With nine full seasons of Star Trek still ahead of us, already announced, any Section 31 news will be an interesting surprise — perhaps it’s in line to follow Picard after it departs in 2023, or will end up being some other kind of project separate from the ongoing shows.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuts on Thursday, May 5 on Paramount+ in the United States, Australia, Latin America, and the Nordics, as well as on CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada. Additional international distribution has not yet been announced.