SNW Info
The second season of the Captain Pike led prequel series has finished filming and is in post-production. Expect it to stream in 2023.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will return to Paramount Plus for season 2, after breaking records for the streamer in its first season. There’s no question that Strange New Worlds is the hit the network has been looking for, after the lackluster performance of other new Trek efforts like Discovery and Picard.
The second season of the Captain Pike led prequel series has finished filming and is in post-production.
Strange New Worlds Season 2 Arrives In 2023
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 doesn’t have a debut date, yet. However, the season has been shot and it’s likely that we’ll see those new episodes available to watch on Paramount Plus some time in 2023.
In the early half of the year is probably a good bet, given that season one debuted in May of 2022.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Will Crossover With Strange New Worlds In Season 2
GIANT FREAKIN ROBOT was first to break the story that the cast of the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks would appear in live-action. Now we know that not only is it happening, it’s happening as part of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2.
The episode is being directed by Star Trek alum Jonathan Frakes, who played Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation and who also voices Captain Riker on Lower Decks. Exactly how the crew of the USS Cerritos will end up in live-action and on the bridge of the USS Enterprise in Strange New Worlds season 2 remains to be seen, but it’s worth noting that even though it’s animated Paramount has confirmed that the events of Lower Decks are official canon.
The main obstacle to this crossover happening isn’t the fact that the crew of the Cerritos has previously only ever appeared in animated form. The biggest problem is that Star Trek: Lower Decks takes place in the year 2380 while Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 takes place in the year 2265.
It’s safe to assume that either the Cerritos will travel back in time to meet up with the Enterprise, or the Enterprise will travel forward in time and encounter the Cerritos. Which it’ll be is impossible to predict.
We do know, however, that the actors who voice the character of Star Trek: Lower Decks will be the same people playing them in live-action form when they appear in Strange New Worlds season 2. Here’s a breakdown of the two characters confirmed to cross over and end up on Captain Pike’s bridge…
So far there’s been no word on any of the show’s animated characters crossing over into Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2. It’s probably safe to assume it’ll just be these two.
New Additions For The Season 2 Cast
Carol Kane has officially been cast in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2. She’s been cast as an extremely experienced engineer named Pelia, possibly as the ship’s new Chief Engineer replacing Hemmer.
70-year-old Carol Kane is probably most well known for her work in The Princess Bride, where she played the cantankerous wife of Miracle Max, albeit underneath heavy old-age makeup. She’s been in a lot of the best comedies of the 80s and 90s in particular, showing up in films like Scrooged and Joe Versus the Volcano.
Of course we know that at some point in the future Montgomery Scott will become the Enterprise’s Chief Engineer, but that may be several years away. It’s likely the ship will have a different engineer between now and then.
Whether Carol Kane’s Pelia will be a permanent replacement for Hemmer in the Chief Engineer role, remains to be seen.
Anson Mount Leads The Cast Returning For Strange New Worlds Season 2
Most of the characters you met in Strange New Worlds season 1 will return for season 2. Here’s a quick breakdown of everyone confirmed to be returning…
Hemmer Is NOT Slated To Return, But There Could Be A Surprise
In season 1 of the series the ship’s Chief Engineer Hemmer was killed. There’s been some speculation that he could return for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, but if that does happen, it will be a surprise.
Both actor Bruce Horak and the rest of the show’s team have remained pretty adamant that Hemmer is dead. It could all be a smokescreen and we didn’t ACTUALLY see Hemmer die, so that leaves the door open for a return.
When last we saw Hemmer he was jumping to his death from an impossible height. It’s hard to imagine how he could have survived the fall and subsequent arctic environment. His species does love the cold though, so if anyone could have survived it’s him.
The Plot Of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Will Resolve Number One’s Arrest
When the series returns for its second season, it’ll have to answer the big question left hanging at the end of season one. The last episode concluded with the Enterprise’s first officer, Una Chin-Riley, being arrested by Starfleet security for the crime of being genetically engineered.
In a flash-forward to an alternate timeline in that same episode, Captain Pike saw a future in which Number One spent the rest of her life on a penal colony. It seems unlikely that will be her fate in this timeline, however. Rebecca Romijn, who plays Una, is still a permanent part of the cast.
Expect Captain Pike to pull off some sort of miracle and rescue his first officer, likely in the very first episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2.
Once that dangling Una thread is resolved, expect to see Strange New Worlds season 2 resume the show’s stated mission of seeking out new life and new civilizations.
The series primarily uses an episodic format, with different stories being told every week and with very little connecting tissue between them. It’s the way the original Star Trek did it back in the 60s, and going back to that formula has been a huge, huge success.
WHERE AND WHEN DOES THIS SHOW FIT IN THE STAR TREK TIMELINE?
Strange New Worlds takes place in and around the year 2259. By comparison, the original Star Trek from the 60s takes place in the years 2265 – 2269. Star Trek: The Next Generation is set between 2364 and 2370.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuted to considerable fanfare in early May of 2022 with a build-up to a series that’s really been decades in the making. In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the story follows the crew of The Enterprise, but in a time before we originally met the cast that would make the show famous.
Captain Christopher Pike was originally intended to be the hero of Star Trek, not Captain Kirk. In the 60s the first iteration of the show was a pilot called The Cage in which Jeffrey Hunter played Chris Pike as the man in charge of the Enterprise. The pilot was scrapped, the captain role was recast and given the name James T. Kirk.
Over time canon became that Christopher Pike was captain of the Enterprise before James T. Kirk and now Strange New Worlds is here to tell the story of that previous captain and his crew.
It was in Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 where Anson Mount made his debut as Christopher Pike when he temporarily took over as captain of the titular ship. We also meet Ethan Peck’s Spock — who is wrongly accused of murder and is on the run — in Discovery‘s second season as well Rebecca Romijn as Number One.
The events of that series set the stage for what is happening in Strange New Worlds, but at the same time not every character knows about what happened in Discovery, nor do you need to watch that season to understand the newer series. All you really need to know is that during the events of Discovery, Pike is given a vision of the future that — in the Strange New Worlds premiere — makes him hesitant to return to the Captain’s chair.
Strange New Worlds Has A 98% Fresh Rating
There has been overwhelmingly positive critical consensus on the first season of Strange New Worlds with the show’s Rotten Tomatoes score sitting at 98%. And the fans have been along for the ride as well. The Audience Score is sitting at 81%.
The latter is an important number in this franchise because the fans can be as opinionated as they come with these new series, especially ones that affect the Original Series timeline. Consider Star Trek: Discovery which has played well with critics, nailing 86% on Rotten Tomatoes for its first four seasons. But the 36% Audience Score tells a very (very) different story.
And the same can be said for Star Trek: Picard which has suffered some of the same critical and audience disconnect. That show’s first two seasons are averaging 86% on Rotten Tomatoes as well. For this one, in line with Discovery, the Audience Score is sitting at 41%.
It’s been something of the theme with these Kurtzman/ Goldsman productions. But Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is winning with both groups because it’s returning to some of what worked with the Original Series, playing a more episodic fashion and keeping things a bit lighter as well. Turns out, this is the vibe Star Trek fans want these days.
