Every Star Trek TV series on Paramount+, from Star Trek: Discovery to Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, has now been canceled. Although Star Trek: Starfleet Academy still has season 2 waiting to premiere, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds banked seasons 4 and 5, which also await Paramount+ release dates, there are currently no new Star Trek projects in production or greenlit.
Variety was the watchword of Star Trek on Paramount+ under Alex Kurtzman. Expanding into serialization, animation, comedy, and movie-quality action-adventure, the last 9 years of Star Trek avoided a cookie-cutter approach. All of this was an effort to not just please longtime Star Trek fans, but also create new fans. However, many older fans rejected the idea of Star Trek shows aimed at a demographic that wasn’t them.
Ultimately, Paramount+ axing two Star Trek series in particular is an about-face to the search for younger audiences and the mission to inject new blood into Star Trek‘s aging fanbase.
Paramount Failed The 2 Star Trek Shows Aimed At Younger Audiences
Paramount+ canceled Star Trek: Starfleet Academy after two seasons, just as the streamer abruptly purged Star Trek: Prodigy while season 2 was in production. A concerted fan campaign led Netflix to temporarily rescue Star Trek: Prodigy, but the beloved animated series is now in streaming limbo.
Why Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Ending In Season 2 Is A Tragedy
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will officially end with season 2, but Paramount+ not continuing the series past its second season has ramifications.
Star Trek: Prodigy was a noble attempt to reach a pre-teen audience and convert them into Star Trek fans while also being complex enough to fascinate adults. Similarly, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was targeted at college-aged young adults to turn them into Star Trek fans. By canceling both shows, Paramount gave the mission to create young Star Trek fans a vote of ‘no confidence.’
Quality was not an issue with Star Trek: Prodigy or Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. The production values of both series were stellar. Star Trek: Prodigy and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy were written by genuine Star Trek fans, and both series genuflected to the 60-year legacy of Gene Roddenberry’s creation. Neither series found its audience in the numbers Paramount required, but they also had relatively little time to.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Star Trek: Prodigy join Star Trek: The Animated Series as shows that only lasted for two seasons. Even in the modern streaming era, where the 7 seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation are a relic of a different time, two seasons are just not enough. Both Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Star Trek: Prodigy leave their stories unfinished and deserve better.
Star Trek’s Possible New Direction To Find New Audiences
After Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds take their final bows in 2027, what happens next to Star Trek is unclear. Despite putting an end to every new Star Trek series of the past decade, Paramount Skydance reportedly still believes in the Star Trek IP. Star Trek will be back, but how, when, and what the next Star Trek will be about is unknown.
It’s a fair bet that the next Star Trek won’t attempt to target children or young adults so directly.
There are concerns from Star Trek fans that Paramount Skydance, under CEO David Ellison, may pivot away from the progressive and inclusive vision of Gene Roddenberry that Alex Kurtzman’s Star Trek expanded upon. Regardless, given the ‘failures’ of Star Trek: Prodigy and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, it’s a fair bet that the next Star Trek won’t attempt to target children or young adults so directly.
However, many fans discovered Star Trek in their youth and idolized the experience, professionalism, and heroism of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), and other iconic characters. None of them were young or coming-of-age; they were all adults who were the best in their fields.
The next Star Trek may re-focus on highly-skilled adult characters exploring the galaxy aboard a starship, and trust that it will be enough (as before) to win over every generation of fans and create new Star Trek loyalists. Whether the new Star Trek will be a reboot, bring back legacy characters, take place in a familiar timeline, or kick open an entirely new era is unknown.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Star Trek: Prodigy may be the last of their kind, as series about young people in the Star Trek universe that hoped to win over that demographic. Yet two seasons of any Star Trek are simply not enough. After all, imagine if Star Trek: The Next Generation was canceled in season 2.
Paramount failed to show the necessary patience to allow Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Star Trek: Prodigy to find their audience and establish the deep connection that gives birth to lifelong Star Trek fans. Instead, a bright and optimistic future for Star Trek was photon torpedoed in favor of one that’s even more uncertain.