Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Bringing Back Its Best Director

Jonathan Frakes confirms his return to the franchise as the director of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 3, whose production is currently ramping up in Toronto now that the SAG-AFTRA strike has ended. According to the actor/director himself, he is going to direct at least one episode of the upcoming season; Frakes is currently re-voicing some stuff on a video game called Star Trek: Resurgence and doing several non-Star Trek–related projects that have been set in motion now that the productions have started up again.

Jonathan Frakes also directed Strange New Wolds Season 2’s comedy crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks, and his talent behind the camera is credited with the episode’s success. Star Trek: Strange New World Season 3 was only days away from starting production when the Writers Guild of America went on strike, followed by SAG-AFTRA’s own strike that came about two months later. However, with the strikes now ended, the staff working on the series is shifting gears to get the work back on track and start filming Season 3.

We have to digress for a moment and discuss the aftermaths of the SAG-AFTRA strike. It resulted in the loss of 45,000 jobs and an estimated $6.5 billion loss to Southern California’s economy, but it provided a historic pay raise of 7 percent for most minimum wages. Additionally, the agreement improved healthcare funding. Most importantly, the agreement offers protections for actors against the use of artificial intelligence, thus ensuring that studios can’t use AI to create digital replicas of an actor’s likeness without payment or approval. So, no Jonathan Frakes AIs, at least for the time being.

Back to Star Trek. The work on Season 3’s script was continued following the conclusion of WAG’s strike in September, and the production is finally ramping up now that both Jonathan Frakes and Chris Fisher are in Toronto—or at least heading that way. The upcoming Season 3 still has to resolve the epic cliffhanger at the end of Season 2, with the much-anticipated appearance of the Gorn and their kidnapping of the Enterprise. We have to admit, it’s probably the best cliffhanger we were left with; the Gorn CGI is absolutely grotesquely fantastic.

Will the Gorn be to Strange New Worlds what the Klingons or the Control were to Discovery? It still remains to be seen, but we can’t wait for Strange New Worlds to hit the streaming and our small screens. This still doesn’t answer the most obvious question: which episode(s) is Jonathan Frakes going to direct? Will they be relentless action episodes filled with Gorn vs Federation battles, or are we looking forward to yet another comedic take on the franchise that, honestly, never gets old?