Star Trek: Strange New Worlds executive producer and co-showrunner, Henry Alonso Myers, dropped a huge update on Star Trek: Year One, their proposed spinoff about Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) and the Starship Enterprise. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds wrapped its fifth and final season last Christmas, and they are currently in post-production.

During the promotion for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, executive producers and co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers revealed that they were actively pursuing a Paul Wesley-led spinoff about James Kirk’s first year as Captain of the Enterprise. However, as production of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 5 mounted in the fall, news about Star Trek: Year One fell by the wayside.

TrekMovie‘s Anthony Pascale caught up with Henry Alonso Myers on the red carpet of the 53rd annual Saturn Awards, where Star Trek was honored with the Hall of Fame Award. Myers confirmed that he and Goldsman have officially pitched Star Trek: Year One to Paramount+. While it’s “in their hands right now,” Henry assures us that “there’s a lot of love” for Strange New Worlds and for Star Trek at the studio:

Henry Alonso Myers: Yeah, we we’ve brought them a lot. We’ve done a lot to give to them. It’s in their hands right now. They’re taking a look at it, trying to decide it. I mean, there’s a lot of love for our show over there, and obviously a lot of love for Star Trek.

We think it would be a great [show], it’s the next thing for Star Trek, we think, in the story that we’ve been telling. But it’s out of our hands… We think it would be a great [show], it’s the next thing for Star Trek, we think, in the story that we’ve been telling. But it’s out of our hands.”

One encouraging tidbit Henry Alonso Myers reveals to TrekMovie is that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ sets are still standing. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds filmed at CBS Stages Canada in Mississauga, outside of Toronto. This is a positive sign that Paul Wesley’s Captain Kirk could take over the Starship Enterprise bridge from Anson Mount’s Captain Christopher Pike:

Henry Alonso Myers: “Well, our sets have not been destroyed yet. That is what I can say… That makes this the big decision for them, because it’s about, do you hold on to the sets, currently? As I said, they have not been destroyed, so we’re waiting to find out what they want to do.”

Henry Alonso Myers also addressed TrekMovie‘s question of whether Paramount+ is waiting to see how Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 performs this year before making a decision about greenlighting Star Trek: Year One. It sounds like much hinges on Akiva Goldsman’s prowess at negotiating with the studio:

Henry Alonso Myers: “I don’t know. The way I tend to look at it, my job is to get [post-production on season 4 and 5] done, to finish the show. I try not to think about what our partners at the studio have to do because that’s a whole other world. Akiva likes to go in and really push hard, and I’m probably more of a softer push on that, but my heart is where Akiva is.”

Finally, regarding TrekMovie‘s query about whether Henry Alonso Myers thinks the fact that there’s currently no new Star Trek in production or greenlit for the first time in a decade is a “pivot point” for Star Trek, Henry says his priority is completing the post-production process of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds:

Henry Alonso Myers: “No, because, for me to read that… I’m literally working every day on [Strange New Worlds] and I’m like, nothing has changed. We have 16 episodes that you haven’t seen. We have two whole seasons that we’re still working on, and we’ll be working on for quite some time. And [Starfleet] Academy is happening at the same time, and they just wrapped their season, like, literally, like a week or two ago… But, look, these things take a long time to do and do well. I mean, I want to say it’s probably like an 18-month process.”

Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers previously revealed that Star Trek: Year One would be new stories about Captain Kirk’s first year aboard the USS Enterprise set before Star Trek: The Original Series‘ second pilot episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Star Trek: Year One wouldn’t recreate episodes of Star Trek that were made 60 years ago.

Directed by Valerie Weiss and written by David Reed and Bill Wolkoff, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 6, “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail,” tells the foundational story of Lt. Commander Kirk’s first time as acting Captain of the USS Farragut.

It wasn’t a coincidence that Kirk’s first time in the Captain’s chair found him surrounded by his future USS Enterprise crew, Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck), Scotty (Martin Quinn), Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), and Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), all of whom would logically return for Star Trek: Year One.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 6 was so well-received that it alleviated a great deal of skepticism about a Paul Wesley-led Captain Kirk spinoff. “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail” was effectively a proof of concept that Star Trek: Year One would work, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 continued to build the bromance between Wesley’s Kirk and Ethan Peck’s Spock.

Paramount+’s announcement that Thomas Jane was cast as Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy, along with Kai Murakami as Hikaru Sulu, and that the duo would appear in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ series finale also added fuel to the Star Trek: Year One fire. After all, why cast an actor as high-profile as Thomas Jane to play Bones McCoy for a one-episode appearance, unless it was groundwork for a potential spinoff?

For now, the wait continues for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 to premiere on Paramount+, likely during the summer. The future of Star Trek is a huge question mark as Paramount Skydance decides on what direction to take Gene Roddenberry’s 60-year-old sci-fi franchise. Hopefully, it will include new voyages for Paul Wesley’s Captain Kirk and Ethan Peck’s Mr. Spock in Star Trek: Year One.

Release Date

May 5, 2022

Network

Paramount+

Showrunner

Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman

Directors

Dan Liu, Amanda Row, Maja Vrvilo, Akiva Goldsman, Dermott Downs, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Jonathan Frakes, Jordan Canning, Leslie Hope, Valerie Weiss, Sydney Freeland, Christopher J. Byrne, Rachel Leiterman

Writers

Onitra Johnson