Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 will officially introduce a major character in James T. Kirk’s (Paul Wesley) life from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

The future Captain Kirk takes on a greater significance in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4’s mission is to begin to bridge the prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, when Kirk becomes Captain of the USS Enterprise. Kirk’s pre-TOS life is fair game for Strange New Worlds to further develop.

As reported by CinemaBlend, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 is the cover story of SFX Magazine. Executive producer and co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers reveals that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 will introduce James Kirk’s son, David Marcus. Myers explains David appearing in Strange New Worlds below:

Henry Alonso Myers: “I don’t want to call it a rewrite, but it’s like a rethink. The experience of David was not a part of the series because they didn’t really figure David out until the movies… Kirk is heroic, and none of us wanted to imagine that he is a lousy father, so that offered a lot of opportunities about how to get into his mind, emotionally.”

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan introduced David Marcus (Merritt Butrick), the adult son of Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) and Dr. Carol Marcus (Bibi Besch). As per Jim and Carol’s agreement, Kirk “stayed away” and let Carol raise their son to become a scientist like her. Just when James and David began to reconcile, however, Kirk’s son was killed in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, James Kirk confessed to Lieutenant La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) that he had a complicated relationship with his pregnant on-again/off-again girlfriend named Carol. When Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 rolls around, David will have been born and is about two years old.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds hasn’t revealed the young actor cast as David Marcus, nor is it clear if he will be joined by his mother or who would play Dr. Carol Marcus. Introducing David, however, is a bold move by Star Trek: Strange New Worlds that can answer how Kirk really feels about not being part of David’s life, and explore whether he is or isn’t “a lousy father.”

James Kirk’s older brother, Lieutenant Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannotte), is also part of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ USS Enterprise crew, and is canonically a husband and a father. Perhaps having Jim face fatherhood and his potential failures will deepen the bond between him and Sam, who he’s often at odds with.

David Marcus in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 will also let fans experience Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in a new light.

Release Date

2022 – 2027-00-00

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