Star Trek: Starfleet Academy to start filming soon – Find out when the new series premieres

Alex Kurtzman reveals the episode count and release window for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Starfleet Academy

Filming for the new original series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is set to begin later this year. In a recent interview, showrunner and executive producer Alex Kurtzman revealed that the principal photography for the highly anticipated Trek series is set to start in the next few months, confirming the episode count for the show’s first season and a tentative release window.

When will Star Trek: Starfleet Academy start filming?

Speaking to Collider at SXSW in March 2024, Kurtzman shared that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is set to start filming later this summer, as the team behind the new show has officially reached the “halfway” point in the writers’ room.

How many episodes will Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 have?

Kurtzman confirmed during the same interview that the freshman run of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will have 10 episodes.

What is the release date for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1?

While filming for the first season of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is set to begin soon, Alex Kurtzman has warned Trekkies they’ll have to wait a bit longer before the show premieres in the United States.

“It could end up not airing until 2026,” Kurtzman told Collider. “We don’t know. But by starting [shooting in late summer], just building the sets alone is a massive endeavor, then six months of shooting, then six to eight months of post. If you recall, there was all this noise around season 1 and season 2 of Discovery because the streaming service, they were like, ‘Oh, it’s like a turnaround on a cop show.’ I’m like, ‘No, you don’t understand. It’s eight months of visual effects turnaround, and we’re not gonna rush that.’ So, it’ll come out, but it’ll come out when it’s done.”

What will Star Trek: Starfleet Academy be about?

Sharing a name with the late 1990s video game, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will follow an all-new class of Starfleet cadets mentored for leadership roles in the United Federation of Planets space force.

Kurtzman serves as showrunner, alongside Noga Landau. Kurtzman and Landau also executive produce the show, along with Aaron Baiers, Jenny Lumet, Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth, Frank Siracusa, John Weber, and Gaia Violo, who wrote the series pilot.

The setting of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has not been officially revealed, but there has been speculation that it will take place in the 32nd century, as it has been rumored to be a spinoff series of Star Trek: Discovery.

Star Trek: Discovery main characters
Star Trek: Discovery main characters

In season 4, episode 4 of Star Trek: Discovery, Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), who has struggled with her role as Starfleet officer for weeks, joined a group of Starfleet cadets on what was supposed to be a routine training mission. Things didn’t go as planned, but Tilly managed to keep the group alive on a hostile planet long enough for rescue. After what happened, Tilly received an offer from Kovich (David Cronenberg) to teach at Starfleet Academy, which she accepted. The installment ended with a tearful farewell that ultimately saw Tilly leaving the USS Discovery and its crew for her new teaching job.

Many Trekkies believe that Tilly’s departure from Star Trek: Discovery is a setup for Starfleet Academy, as she is the perfect point-of-view character for the potential spinoff. Tilly started serving aboard the USS Discovery during the Klingon War while still a cadet. And even though she’s relatively young, Tilly has valuable experience beyond her years, thanks to her quick promotions, time as USS Discovery’s First Officer, and her life-changing trip through time.

Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly in Star Trek: Discovery
Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly in Star Trek: Discovery

Who will star in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy?

There has been no official casting announcement yet. In fact, Kurtzman admitted to Collider that they “haven’t started casting the kids” yet.

Without delving into specifics, Kurtzman teased what fans can expect from these new characters: “There’s a lot of different kids from a lot of different places. Some of them want to be there, some of them don’t want to be there.”

“It’s gonna be a fundamental reinforcement of all the things we love about Starfleet, in general,” Kurtzman added of what fans can expect from Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. “You always want to ask yourself, ‘Why this show now?’ I think that one of the big things that certainly my 17-year-old son is facing, which is kind of a fundamental ‘Star Trek’ question, is, ‘How did we get here? How has this generation inherited the mistakes from previous generations? And what are we gonna do to fix it, to build that optimistic future that is Roddenberry’s essential vision?’ That is very much going to be at the heart of Starfleet Academy.”

With Lower Decks star Tawny Newsome in the writers’ room, Kurtzman noted that “it feels like the spirit of that show has somehow also migrated into Starfleet in some ways.”

Where to watch Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will be available to watch on Paramount+, where several newer Star Trek series are also streaming, including Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Short Treks, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decksand Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Sources: ColliderDeadline
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