The Biggest News And Surprises Of The Year

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was largely at the center of Star Trek’s newsworthy 2025. Unlike 2024, which featured the final seasons of Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Prodigy, and Star Trek: Lower Decks, 2025 only had one Star Trek series with new episodes, Strange New Worlds, as well as a streaming movie, Star Trek: Section 31.

2025 was the 59th year of Star Trek, and the most seismic shift of the franchise’s parent company was Skydance Media completing its purchase of Paramount Global. The new Paramount Skydance, under CEO and former Star Trek movie executive producer David Ellison, set a new agenda for Star Trek that fans are only seeing glimpses of, with the biggest shift thus far happening in Star Trek‘s movie division.

Meanwhile, exciting things happened outside of Star Trek movies and TV in 2025. IDW’s Star Trek comics continued to innovate, including resurrecting Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek: The Last Starship. LEGO’s first collaboration with Star Trek resulted in the LEGO USS Enterprise-D set immediately selling out. Star Trek: Khan also brought the franchise into the narrative podcast space.

For Star Trek’s TV and movies, 2025 was full of surprises and a few disappointments. Here are the 5 biggest Star Trek news stories of the year:

5

Section 31 Disappoints Star Trek Fans

Star Trek: Section 31 was the first Star Trek movie since Star Trek Beyond in 2016, the first Star Trek movie made for streaming on Paramount+, and the return of Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh as Emperor Philippa Georgiou. What could possibly go wrong?

Originally slated as an ongoing TV series, Star Trek: Section 31‘s pilot was altered into a standalone feature film, and the awkward transition was evident in the final product. However, the real issue was that Section 31 wasn’t a Star Trek movie as much as it played like a generic sci-fi action film with a fleeting Star Trek sheen.

Michelle Yeoh gave her comeback as Emperor Georgiou her best, and highlights included Kacey Rohl as a young Lieutenant Rachel Garrett. Ultimately, however, Star Trek: Section 31 felt derivative and devoid of the lofty ideas and moral complexity of the best of Star Trek – or how Section 31 was originally presented in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Although Star Trek: Section 31 scored respectable streaming numbers on Paramount+, it took a drubbing from critics and Star Trek fans. Paramount Skydance then announced that the studio will only concentrate on Star Trek theatrical films going forward, putting an end to a Star Trek: Section 31 sequel and hopes for more and better Star Trek streaming movies on Paramount+.

4

Scott Bakula Wants A Star Trek Comeback

Captain Archer smiling in Star Trek Enterprise finale

Star Trek fans were completely blindsided – in a good way – when news broke from Creation Entertainment’s STLV: Trek to Vegas in August that Scott Bakula is not only open to returning to Star Trek, but the Emmy nominee worked with Star Trek: Enterprise writer-producer Michael Sussman on a spinoff as President Jonathan Archer.

Dubbed Star Trek: United, Scott Bakula’s proposed comeback series is set in the late 22nd century, where President Archer and his family fight to save the young United Federation of Planets that Jonathan helped found. Star Trek: United is fashioned as a political thriller and family drama, promising a bold new style of prestige Star Trek TV series.

The possibility of Scott Bakula reprising Jonathan Archer 20 years after Star Trek: Enterprise ended has been irresistible to Star Trek fans, and Star Trek: United has been riding a wave of momentum. Michael Sussman has revealed his remarkable amount of world-building for his proposed TV series, including starship designs by legendary Star Trek concept artist Andrew Probert.

What happens next to Star Trek: United is up to Paramount Skydance, which hopefully will reveal plans for the future of Star Trek on Paramount+ in 2026. Along with Star Trek: Legacy, Star Trek: United has captured the imagination of and enjoys a groundswell of support from Star Trek fans who want Scott Bakula back as President Archer.

3

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Is Divisive

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 was the only new Star Trek series to premiere on Paramount+ in 2025. After a 2-year wait due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in 2023, anticipation was astronomical when Star Trek: Strange New Worlds finally premiered in June 2025, hoping to still ride the mainstream adulation season 2 received in 2022.

Despite a gangbusters season 3 premiere, and a well-received performance by Rhys Darby as Trelane, the good vibes toward Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 surprisingly began to turn with the lukewarm reception to what was supposed to be a sure bet: “A Space Adventure Hour,” the holodeck-set Hollywood murder mystery directed by Jonathan Frakes.

Some Star Trek fans grumbled that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 was less concerned with classic Star Trek storytelling than it was with indulgent genre-bending, comedy, and dancing from Christina Chong’s Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh and Ethan Peck’s Lt. Spock. The farcical “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” received the most outright hatred from a segment of Star Trek fans who lamented that Strange New Worlds had lost its mojo.

To be fair, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 has many high points, from the episode focused on Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) to Melissa Navia’s one-woman show in her long-awaited episode spotlighting Lt. Erica Ortegas. However, by the time Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 ended, the Starship Enterprise had taken a pounding from critics and viewers that no one saw coming when the season began.

A big shock came in November when Variety‘s cover story about Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison dropped the bombshell news that the studio had canceled plans for a fourth J.J. Abrams-produced Star Trek movie. Star Trek 4 had been in development hell for nearly a full decade, and Paramount Skydance decided on a new direction.

Instead of Star Trek 4, Paramount Skydance brought aboard hit filmmakers Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who wrote Spider-Man: Homecoming, and made Horrible Bosses and the vastly underrated Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. However, Goldstein and Daley’s new Star Trek will reportedly be unrelated to any prior Star Trek movie or TV show.

It’s disappointing that Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk, Zachary Quinto’s Mr. Spock, and the crew of the Starship Enterprise won’t reunite after a decade of waiting, with the actors publicly stating their excitement to return. Star Trek 4 saw a host of high-profile filmmakers abandon the project due to “creative differences,” including Quentin Tarantino.

John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s new Star Trek movie also begs the question of whether it will be another reboot, as Paramount Skydance wants a four-quadrant blockbuster not dependent on audiences being fluent in 60 years of Star Trek canon. Still, Paramount Skydance declared Star Trek “a priority” for the studio, and this is a positive first step towards a new Star Trek theatrical movie, at last.

1

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 5 Greenlit & Series Wraps Production

Incredibly, 2025 ends with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds completing production and wrapping the entire series. When Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 premiered in June, Paramount+ simultaneously announced that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was renewed for a fifth and final season consisting of only 6 episodes.

At warp speed, production of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds began in the fall, and the entire series was wrapped on December 20th when executive producer and co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman called “cut” on the final shot of the series finale. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ cast bid their farewells on social media and went their separate ways for the holidays, leaving their five-year mission on the Starship Enterprise behind.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is over for the cast and crew, but filming so far in advance meant the prequel banked two seasons and 16 episodes in total. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 will premiere in 2026 while Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 5 will follow in 2027.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy also has two seasons to come on Paramount+, with season 1 premiering January 15, 2026, and season 2 following in 2027.

However, the sadness surrounding the end of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ production is indicative of the big changes that could potentially happen to Star Trek on Paramount+ in 2026. Executive producer Alex Kurtzman and Secret Hideout’s deal reportedly expires next year, and Paramount Skydance could announce a new direction for Star Trek on Paramount+ in 2026, the 60th anniversary year of Star Trek.