The third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds comes to a conclusion on Thursday. Production on the fourth season wrapped over the summer, and filming on the fifth is set to start later this month. At a preview screening of the season 3 finale on Monday in Los Angeles, the showrunners and producers talked about the season that was, and the seasons to come.
Doing their best work for season 4
On Monday (Star Trek Day), Strange New Worlds co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers were joined by cast members Ethan Peck (Spock), Paul Wesley (Kirk), and Rebecca Romijn (Una) for an LA Times screening of the season 3 finale and a moderated Q&A. During the panel discussion, the topic turned to what’s next for the show, and the showrunners reflected on the most recent season and hyped the next:
Akiva Goldsman: “Thank you guys for following along with us on this journey. There were certainly sort of stumbling blocks along the way, you know, season 3, I’m very happy it’s over. Because we had a strike, and we sort of had to manage all sort of work on the fly a little bit. I think season 4, for me, is the best work we’ve done… Everybody’s working at their stride.”
Henry Alonso Myers: “I think that’s true… We try to approach every season from the idea of: If this is the last season, what do we want to do? Let’s just treat it like you don’t get to do another one. Let’s try everything that we could possibly want to try. It’s a crazy, dynamic, interesting, terrifying, exciting thing to do.”
Goldsman also talked about how the legacy characters are evolving each season towards what we know in TOS:
Akiva Goldsman: “Henry always says that they don’t know who they’re going to be. And I think that’s really sort of our watchword when it comes to characterization. They’re not the folks that we grew up with, or I grew up because I’m really old. They will be. They’re the precursors. And so how they get there is exciting.”
Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn, Paul Wesley, Henry Alonso Myers, and Akiva Goldsman at LA Times Screenings event (Photo: TrekMovie.com)
A big challenge for Rebecca and Una
During that discussion, Romijn jumped in to say “I LOVE season 4!” When asked about acting challenges, she teased something new for her in season 4:
Rebecca Romijn: “There are challenges they give us that we never knew we wanted, and then we do it. Like there’s something in season 4 that I get to do [laughs]. You guys will never guess what it was, but I did it. I was like, ‘There’s no way I can do this. There’s NO WAY.’ And then I did and I was like, ‘Yeah, I never knew I could do that challenge.’ It was so good. Yeah, it gives us some good opportunities.”
The actress also talked more generally about how we have seen Una evolve over the latest season:
Rebecca Romijn: “I think it’s gradual, we get to see what Una could be like as captain or in command. I think once she came out as Illyrian, and she’s freed up to live her fullest potential, it’s nice to see who she might be.”
More Kirk and Spock… evolving to TOS
When asked what they are excited about most coming up, Paul Wesley pointed to the growing relationship between Kirk and Spock:
Paul Wesley: “I’m excited about our [Spock and Kirk] relationship, I really am. I think Spock and Kirk are yin yang. And I’m excited. Yeah, I love being on screen with you. I like hanging out with you in person as well. You’re a great guy.”
Peck agreed and he and Wesley even had a bit of a bro moment, fist bump and all.
Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn, and Paul Wesley at the LA Times Screenings event (Photo: TrekMovie.com)
Wesley also talked about how through the show and into upcoming seasons, we are seeing different aspects of Kirk as he evolves into who we know in TOS:
Paul Wesley: “I’m very aware that Kirk has this—he’s the great American hero of television. It’s a big, heavy sort of thing to carry. I try not to think about that when I’m playing the role. But what I love about Strange New Worlds is that every episode is different. And so every episode, I’m able to show a different side of Kirk. So if he’s subdued in one episode, and then he plays a 1960s version of the over the top actor named Maxwell Saint, who has maybe some similarities to some other people. [laughs] We can sort of play and that’s what’s so fun about this character.
I am excited for people to see what happens in season 4 and I’m excited for what I’m going to do in season 5, because we are ultimately going to a final destination, which is the Kirk that is the fully-formed Kirk that we know from TOS. And we’re not there yet, but I’m really excited to go there and play that… I’m excited for that evolution, yeah.”
Peck chimed in to agree:
Ethan Peck: “There are moments in [season 4] where I see the formation [of Kirk], and it’s really exciting.”
He also talked more about Spock’s evolution on the series:
Ethan Peck: “I think that with Spock, he’s learning about how unique he is and how different than others he is, as we all are from one another. I think it’s so important for him, because he’s betwixt these two very different worlds. I see in the course of the show, him becoming more certain in his sort of difference, the way he’s different. Which I think is remarkable.”
And earlier Wesley hinted there is another relationship with a human character that he is excited for fans to see coming up:
Paul Wesley: “In watching like TOS, you do learn a lot about the history of Kirk, but it’s very quick… I enjoy taking these kernels, these little things that just pieces of information from TOS and exploring them in an emotional way. My relationship with Sam Kirk… I don’t want to give away too much, but there’s Kirk’s emotional ties to other humans. I think it’s humanizing a very important character in American television history. So, we’re exploring the human side of a lot of things that are well known in canon, but not necessarily from an emotional perspective.”
Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn, and Paul Wesley at LA Times Screenings event (Photo: TrekMovie.com)
Paramount+ has not yet set a release date for season 4, but it is expected to debut in later 2026. We will likely learn more at the NYCCC panel in October.
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
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