Star Trek: Discovery Season 4, CBS Decides Whether It’s Happening
CBS All Access has just announced their future plans for Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 and the future of the series is coming even sooner than expected.
The day after the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 on CBS All Access, the streaming service has announced that the show will return for Star Trek: Discovery Season 4. Production starts extremely soon.
In the video below, stars Sonequa Martin-Green and Doug Jones, as well as executive producers and co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise break the news. Both Martin-Green and Jones talk about how excited they are to get back on set and to reunite with their Star Trek: Discovery family. But the cast won’t have to wait very long to get back together, as Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 begins production on November 2.
For those who haven’t caught up with Star Trek: Discovery’s second season, the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery was on their most uncertain journey yet. Commander Burnham (Martin-Green) flew the Discovery into a wormhole, jumping the ship and the crew ahead an unknown period of time. Surely, Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 will still be dealing with the repercussions of this massive shift for the series.
Since Star Trek: Discovery‘s first two seasons happened before the original series, the show was stuck under strict limitations and decades worth of lore that the show had to try and fit into. But by charting a new course all its own, Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 and the newly-confirmed Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 can explore the universe and meet new characters, without having to worry about how it fits into the much-beloved history that fans already know so well.
CBS has been putting a lot of stock in the future of Star Trek for the success of their network and their streaming service, beyond just Star Trek: Discovery Season 4. Since many networks are struggling to find new programs to air, due to shooting restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS has begun airing the first season of Star Trek: Discovery to lure fans to their streaming service, although the first weeks of ratings haven’t been great so far.
But CBS All Access – which will soon become Paramount+ in early 2021 – has already had multiple new Star Trek series since Star Trek: Discovery premiered in 2017. In 2018, the streaming service put out Star Trek: Short Treks, an anthology series of short films that further looks into the settings and characters from Star Trek: Discovery. CBS even brought back Patrick Stewart to reprise his role as USS Enterprise Captain Jean-Luc Picard for their series Star Trek: Picard. The series premiered earlier this year, and a second season is currently in the works. Also this year, CBS All Access premiered their animated Star Trek series, Star Trek: Lower Decks, the first animated series in the series since Star Trek: The Animated Series concluded in 1974. Star Trek: Lower Decks is created by Rick and Morty writer Mike McMahan and tells the story of the support crew for one of Starfleet’s least important ships.
If all these new series debuting this year, and the promise of Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 isn’t enough for you, good news, there’s even more Star Trek on the way. It was recently announced that the new animated Nickelodeon series, Star Trek: Prodigy, would feature the return of Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager, and is set to premiere in 2021. There’s also a new Star Trek: Discovery spinoff series in the works, entitled, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, starring several characters from Star Trek: Discovery Season 2. The show will follow Spock (Ethan Peck), Captain Pike (Anson Mount), and Number One (Rebecca Romijn). The show is currently planned to start filming next year. There will also be yet another Star Trek: Discovery spinoff, this one starring Michelle Yeoh as her Discovery character, Philippa Georgiou.
Even later down the line, likely coming out even after Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 are two new series. Ceti Alpha V will be a limited series that centers around Khan Noonien Singh from The Wrath of Khan. Finally, The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz and Gossip Girl developer Stephanie Savage are creating another new series set at Starfleet Academy.
Even beyond the announcement of Star Trek: Discovery Season 4, there’s a ton to keep Star Trek fans excited in the many years to come.
