Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will excite old-school fans, says lead

Star Trek Discovery
(Image credit: CBS/Netflix)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is almost finished filming, and it sounds like we're in for a treat. 

Series star Anson Mount wrote on Twitter: "Last episode of season 1 starts shooting today. Old school fans are going to [be] VERY excited to see what we're trying to pull off with this one. Getting to do many things I've never attempted as an actor. So much fun!"

Mount is reprising his role of Captain Christopher Pike, who he first played in Star Trek: Discovery season 2. Strange New Worlds will focus on Pike's years in charge of the Enterprise, and is set a decade before Captain Kirk entered the franchise. Spock will feature in the new series, again played by Ethan Peck, and Rebecca Romijn will also return as Number One. Pike, Spock, and Number One all first appeared in the original Star Trek series. 

Executive producer and co-creator Akiva Goldsman gave Variety an idea of what to expect from the series last year, and it sounds a lot like Mount's hint on Twitter. "We're going to try to harken back to some classical Trek values, to be optimistic, and to be more episodic," he said. "Obviously, we will take advantage of the serialized nature of character and story building. But I think our plots will be more closed-ended than you've seen in either Discovery or Picard."

That doesn't mean the series will just be retreading old ground, though. "When we said we heard the fans' outpouring of love for Pike, Number One and Spock when they boarded Star Trek: Discovery last season, we meant it," executive producer Alex Kurtzman commented when the new series was announced. "These iconic characters have a deep history in Star Trek canon, yet so much of their stories have yet to be told. The Enterprise, its crew and its fans are in for an extraordinary journey to new frontiers in the Star Trek universe."

This is far from the only Star Trek project coming soon to the small screen. Star Trek: Discovery season 4 is expected to touch down sometime this year, while Star Trek: Picard season 2 is set to arrive in 2022. The second series of animated comedy Star Trek: Lower Decks is also due on August 12, 2021. There's no release date for Strange New Worlds just yet.

While you wait, check out our long read into why Strange New Worlds is exactly what the Star Trek franchise needs, and explore our guide to the Star Trek timeline to brush up on your knowledge.

Molly Edwards
Entertainment Writer

I'm an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.