A Franchise At A Crossroads – TrekMovie.com

We have looked back at the biggest Star Trek news stories of 2025 and picked our Best Of Star Trek In 2025, and now it’s New Year’s Eve, so it’s time to look forward. 2026 should be a big year for the franchise, and we already know some of what’s on the way. We also have some educated guesses along with some open questions about the anniversary year of Trek.

60th Anniversary celebration kicks off with Rose Parade

January 1

2026 is a milestone year, marking the 60th anniversary of the debut of Star Trek: The Original Series. The actual anniversary arrives on Star Trek Day in September, but why wait? Celebrations kick off tomorrow during the nationally broadcast Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, with a Star Trek float and its theme “Space for Everybody.” The design features classic Trek elements like a big USS Enterprise and transporters, and there will be celebrity guests riding along: George Takei (Sulu from The Original Series), Rebecca Romijn (Una, Strange New Worlds), Tig Notaro (Jett Reno, Discovery and Starfleet Academy), and Karim Diané (Jay-Den Kraag, Starfleet Academy). Paramount is also planning more 60th anniversary celebrations, including a collaboration with Fox’s The Masked Singer (we will have more on that soon). They also have merchandise with the new 60th logo at the Star Trek shop. Hopefully that’s just the beginning.

Starfleet Academy debuts with big expectations

January 15

Star Trek is finally launching a show all about the famed Starfleet Academy. Set after the events of Discovery in the 32nd century, the new series will focus on a diverse class of cadets with a faculty that includes familiar faces like Voyager’s Robert Picardo. Paramount spared no expense, using the biggest stage in North America for the campus set (which is also part of the ship, the USS Athena),  and they brought in Oscar winner Holly Hunter as the captain and chancellor to face off against Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti as the season’s over-the-top baddie. This show is Trek’s biggest attempt to attract that coveted young demographic, so Paramount has lined up some big TikTok influencers to help with the upcoming promotional push. It remains to be seen if the new show will hit the this target market, expand the audience, and still keep the current older Trek fans subscribing to Paramount+ all at the same time.

Conventions celebrate 60 years of TOS

February & August & more?

The 60th anniversary of Star Trek will be celebrated in two major gatherings of Trekkies. On February 20th, Star Trek: The Cruise (already sold out) heads out for a week in the Caribbean with a “crew” led by the original Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner. Joining him will be co-star Walter Koenig and some TOS guest stars, plus a wide array of actors from across the franchise. And on August 6th, the 5-day STLV: Trek To Vegas convention kicks off, which Creation is expecting to be sold out as well. Shatner and Koenig will be there along with co-star George Takei, more TOS guest stars, and even more Trek celebs from the other shows and movies. For many fans, this may be the convention of a lifetime—and perhaps a last chance to see some of these legends together. Hopefully Paramount also raises their game and does something special for the 60th at other big events, like Wondercon, San Diego Comic-Con, and New York Comic Con. And could we see the return of a live Star Trek Day event? This seems like the year to do it.

SNW returns with “more serious” 4th season

Late Spring/Early Summer? 

Paramount has yet to set a premiere date for the fourth season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which wrapped production over the summer. After a mixed bag third season that saw a drop in viewership, the cast and showrunners have been hyping the next season as the “best,” and some are saying “more serious.” The show has already shot its fifth and final season (of six episodes), so there’s no question there, but if there is any chance for the proposed follow-up series Star Trek: Year One, season 4 of SNW will have to deliver on the hype. As for when it will arrive, Paramount said at NYCC in October that season 4 was “coming soon.” In theory, post-production could get the show on Paramount+ in late spring after Academy wraps up, but if they want to tie it into the 60th anniversary, season 4 might to arrive in July with the finale landing in September, just like season 3.

New movie goes into pre-production

Summer/Fall?

Our biggest story in 2025 was Paramount shutting down development on the “Star Trek 4” Beyond sequel and the “franchise origin movie” and assigning Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) to develop an entirely new, original Star Trek film. 2026 will be the year to get that film going, especially as Paramount has committed to a focus on franchises, expanding its film slate in a big way, and making Star Trek on the big screen “absolutely a priority.” Goldstein and Daley are currently doing post-production on Mayday, a film they were already producing under Skydance before the merger, which will be released on Apple TV+ (and possibly in theaters) in 2026, freeing them up to move on to Star Trek. Paramount already missed getting a Star Trek movie out for the 60th anniversary year, but if they want Trek on their slate anytime soon, Goldstein and Daley will need to go into pre-production, and possibly into production, in 2026, assuming this is the project that will finally get Trek out of development hell. So keep an eye out for news, casting announcements, and more.

Trek TV pivots

Summer/Fall?

The new era of Star Trek television launched with Discovery in 2017 on CBS All Access (now Paramount+). Alex Kurtzman was tasked with overseeing the franchise for the streaming era, developing and launching several series (and a TV movie). In mid 2021, his contract was extended in an exclusive TV deal that ends in 2026. Kurtzman has hinted about more stuff planned for the future, but it is an open question as to whether or not Paramount sticks with him and his Secret Hideout production company beyond his current contract. It’s possible the new Paramount bigwigs will decide to pivot when it comes to Trek on TV, in sync with what they already did with the feature films by officially ending the J.J. Abrams/Bad Robot era. Executives have already said they want to see a more holistic approach between the Star Trek movies and TV, and just this week The Hollywood Reporter dubbed Star Trek one of the biggest losers of 2025, so maybe Goldstein and Daley (both of whom have TV experience) will be given the keys to Trek on Paramount+ as well. Regardless, Secret Hideout will remain on the hook to deliver the two seasons of Starfleet Academy and two seasons of Strange New Worlds that have been produced, keeping him potentially involved through 2027, and if Academy turns out to be a hit, potentially longer.

The beginning of a new era in Trek gaming?

March 31/Summer?

Star Trek is finally getting some new gaming releases in 2026. In March we will see Star Trek: Infection, a VR survival horror game set around Deep Space Nine. We don’t yet have a date yet for Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown, a story-driven survival game that puts you in command of the USS Voyager, but we expect it to arrive by the summer. We are excited about both, but these titles are from smaller/independent studios; while they aren’t big flashy AAA titles, they could still indicate if Star Trek in gaming will have a resurgence. Skydance has a history with gaming and will be keeping an eye on how these titles do, as will any of the bigger publishers who could pick up the Trek license.

Lots of docs

February and Summer?

2026 should be a good year for Star Trek documentaries. Things kick off in February with the release of Beam Me Up, Sulu about that time George Takei participated in a fan film in the 1980s. Sometime around spring, we expect To The Journey – Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager to finally get a Blu-ray/DVD release (but just for backers) along with a 2-day theatrical release with Fathom, followed later by a streaming release (probably on YouTube). And the 2021 Star Trek docuseries The Center Seat has (apparently) been in production on a second season, this time focusing on the TNG movies, the Kelvin movies and maybe the streaming era TV shows, which should be released in 2026. And 455 films (who made the DS9 and Voyager documentaries) should be wrapping production on Make-Up Man: The Michael Westmore Documentary about the legendary make-up designer behind the TNG era of Trek (and much more). They are hoping to get that doc out in 2026 as well.

Licensing makes some moves

Any time/all year

Speaking of licensing, 2025 has seen the new Paramount change strategy when it comes to Star Trek. On the library side, the entire catalog of classic shows is set to disappear from Netflix internationally in January. With the streaming wars essentially over and new Paramount president Jeff Shell talking about the importance of licensing, it’s a good bet we will see the Trek library (possibly including some seasons of Paramount+ originals) licensed to other streamers around the world and maybe here in the USA. On the products side, we have seen some big deals with companies like LEGO, but some smaller licensees were forced to drop Star Trek due to higher fees. This indicates that Paramount Skydance has bigger ambitions for Star Trek, so look for the announcement of new, splashier deals in 2026. Oh, and even though Netflix dropped the license for Star Trek: Prodigy, Paramount could find it a new streaming home for it in 2026, or maybe even bring it back to Paramount+.

Merger mania resolved… and continues

By summer… and beyond

Earlier this month, it became clear that absorbing Paramount was just the first step of Skydance’s David Ellison’s goal of building a media company that could rival Disney. Paramount has launched a hostile bid to take over the much larger Warner Bros. Discovery, trying to muscle out streaming giant Netflix. Market watchers think the Ellison family could up their bid in 2026 to seal the deal, but either way, a decision will be made by shareholders by the summer. If Paramount fails to get WBD, don’t be surprised to see them shopping for more small- to mid-sized studios and/or streamers. These corporate moves will likely extend into 2027, but plans on expanding Paramount+ through mergers and/or joint ventures will likely be a factor in decisions on the future of Trek TV.

Expect the unexpected

The above list isn’t a compressive breakdown of everything coming to Star Trek in 2026. We know there are books and comics and more products set for the upcoming year, and we will keep reporting on releases and doing reviews whenever possible, so for much of that, it will be business as usual. But, we don’t need to warp around a sun and travel into the future to know that there will be surprises in 2026. Paramount has likely held some things back that will announced during the 60th anniversary year, plus we know they can be cryptic when it comes to when and how they reveal things, like the way they surprised us earlier this year when it was revealed that the almost-forgotten Star Trek: Khan audio series had not only been cast, but had already finished production. BTW, more scripted podcasts like that would be welcome. Maybe the most surprising thing of all is that after 60 years, Star Trek is still going with an active fan base. For sure, TrekMovie will be here to keep track of everything that is coming.

What are you most looking forward to in 2026? Let us know in the comments below.

---

Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.