Paramount Announces Upcoming “Star Trek” Premieres; Is Trek Part of Company’s Future Focus on Franchises?
Paramount Announces Upcoming “Star Trek” Premieres; Is Trek Part of Company’s Future Focus on Franchises?
If you’re ready to boldly go where no one has gone before, keep summer of 2023 circled on your calendar. Paramount has announced that the live-action “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” and the animated “Star Trek: Lower Decks” will return to Paramount+ with new episodes during the summer months. “Strange New Worlds” will debut its second season on June 15; “Lower Decks” Season 4 was not given a precise date other than summer 2023.
What makes the announcement especially noteworthy is the fact that “SNW” will soon be the only live-action Star Trek series in production at Paramount. “Star Trek: Picard” is currently airing its third and final season, and the fifth season of “Star Trek: Discovery” will be released sometime in early 2024. Production is still ongoing for those episodes, but Paramount has confirmed that Season 5 will be the last for “Discovery.”
“SNW” has a limited production runway as well, just because of the setting of the series. The series’ placement in Trek chronology is just before James T. Kirk takes over as captain of the Enterprise, so “SNW” can’t continue for too many years without running the risk of bumping up against the timeline of “Star Trek: The Original Series.”
Given that information, it’s fair to wonder whether or not if the Star Trek franchise is a big part of Paramount’s future plans. Animated series like “Lower Decks” and “Star Trek: Prodigy” may help bring younger viewers to Trek, but they clearly don’t have the broad appeal to drive a whole franchise forward.
It seems unlikely, however, that Paramount will rest the future of Star Trek on solely animated shows. The Trek brand is one of the most well-recognized in popular culture, and live-action shows from this IP make up a highly valuable mid-tier of programming on Paramount+. They likely don’t drive as much traffic as tentpole content like series such as “1923,” but they do bring in users, and drive them to valuable library content on the service like “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
An increase in the number of live-action Star Trek offerings would also be right in line with Paramount’s declared strategy for its streaming future. The company will be merging Paramount+ with its premium cable channel/streaming service SHOWTIME in the third quarter of 2023, and will ramp up content offerings with multiple spinoffs from the “Dexter” and “Billions” franchises, as well as more shows from “Yellowstone” and “1923” co-creator Taylor Sheridan.
The Star Trek franchise might not drive as high of engagement as Marvel or Star Wars do for Disney, but it’s still a beloved IP. It can still generate big money for Paramount, and given the company’s preference for more franchise-based content, there will almost certainly be more live-action Trek series once the current trio of shows conclude their runs.
Paramount Plus
Paramount+ is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 40,000+ TV show episodes from BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr. and more. Get free access with a Walmart+ subscription.
Paramount+ includes “1883,” “Tulsa King,” “Star Trek: Discovery,” “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and “PAW Patrol.” Subscribers can watch the NFL, college football, The Masters, college basketball, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa, Serie A, and NWSL. The service also offers the option to watch your live CBS affiliate. The upgraded ad-free package includes premium movies and shows from Showtime.