With Star Trek celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, things are not as celebratory as one might expect; in fact, with no Star Trek projects presently in production, questions regarding the viability of the franchise.
This seeming pessimism stems from the fact that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy are both coming to an end next year, and there are no new Star Trek projects in the works. This reality was further reinforced a few days ago with news that the standing sets for both shows are now being demolished, and with them, the hope that many viewers held for Star Trek: Year One, a follow-on to Strange New Worlds, chronicling the earliest adventures of Captain James T. Kirk aboard the Enterprise. Part of the argument in favor of Year One was that it would reuse costumes and sets from Strange New Worlds, thus saving considerable cost.
The apparent hiatus is likely also related to parent company Paramount's recent merger with Skydance and a pending merger with Warner Bros./Discovery, along with the conclusion later this year of Star Trek executive producer Alex Kurtzman's contract to produce Star Trek content for Paramount+. All of these things lead to a time of major transition, where it is doubtless prudent and logical to hit the proverbial pause button until the dust settles, but that doesn't necessarily mean Star Trek is done for. Paramount has announced that a new Star Trek feature film will be forthcoming in the next couple of years, but almost no concrete details are yet available.
With both Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy set to stream their final episodes sometime in 2027, the wait for the proposed new Star Trek movie after that may be relatively short, and looking back on the history of the franchise, we've seen that movie before, so to speak. The timeline below tells the story:
- 1966--The original Star Trek premieres on NBC
- 1969--The original series ends its three-year run on NBC and enters syndication
- 1972--The animated series enters pre-production, ending a three-year dormant period.
- 1973--the animated series begins its two-season run as part of NBC's Saturday morning lineup, concluding in 1974.
- 1977--Star Trek: Phase Two, enters pre-production, but then evolves into Star Trek: The Motion Picture, launching the feature film franchise.
- 1979--Star Trek: The Motion Picture released
- 1982: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan released
- 1984: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock released
- 1986--Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home released; Star Trek: The Next Generation announced
- 1987: Star Trek: The Next Generation premieres in first-run syndication
- 1989: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier released
- 1991: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country released
- 1993--Star Trek: Deep Space Nine premieres
- 1994--Next Generation concludes its run on TV and Star Trek: Generations is released
- 1995--Star Trek: Voyager premieres on UPN and in first-run syndication in some markets.
- 1996--Star Trek: First Contact released
- 1998--Star Trek: Insurrection released
- 1999--DS9 concludes.
- 2000--Enterprise premieres on UPN
- 2001--Voyager concludes
- 2002--Star Trek: Nemesis, the last of the TNG feature films, is released
- 2005--Enterprise is canceled following the merger of UPN and WB television networks.
- 2006, the first of J. J. Abrams' Kelvin timeline Star Trek feature films entered pre-production
- 2009--Star Trek, starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, et al, released.
- 2012--Star Trek: Into Darkness released
- 2016--Star Trek: Beyond released.
- 2017--Star Trek: Discovery begins streaming on CBS All Access (later renamed Paramount+), kicking off Star Trek's streaming era and is followed in quick and continuous succession by Picard (2020-2023), Prodigy (2021-2024), Lower Decks (2020-2024), Strange New Worlds (2022-2027), Section 31 (2025), and Starfleet Academy (2026-2027).
- 2026--Fourth 'Kelvin timeline' feature film canceled after a decade of pre-production
- 2027--Final episodes of Starfleet Academy and Strange New Worlds to be streamed
