Cherish “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” (currently on its third season) while it lasts. “Strange New Worlds” will be wrapping up with its fifth season, which will run an abbreviated six episodes. (The previous seasons, and the to-come fourth, all clocked in at 10 episodes.) Fellow Paramount+ series “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Star Trek: Lower Decks” also ended after their season fives, so it seems like that’s the upper limit for a “Trek” show at the moment.
But during negotiations for ending the series, a straightforward fifth season wasn’t the only option considered. Rebecca Romijn, who plays Enterprise First Officer Una Chin-Riley on “Strange New Worlds,” said at the 2025 STLV: Trek to Vegas convention that Paramount put a different offer on the table: a movie. Romijn explained (reported by TrekMovie) that:
“Six [episodes] was a negotiation. Normally it was ten episodes, but they offered us a 2-hour movie and [co-showrunners] Akiva [Goldsman] and Henry [Alonso Myers] said we can’t wrap up these storylines in just two hours. And so they got [six episodes].”
Add that hypothetical “Strange New Worlds” movie to “Star Trek” pictures that never went to warp speed. The franchise has stalled out on theatrical releases since 2016, when “Star Trek: Beyond” underperformed at the box office. Some filmmakers, from Quentin Tarantino to “Fantastic Four: First Steps” director Matt Shakman, have tried to get a new “Trek” movie off the ground, but haven’t succeeded.
The last “Star Trek” movie released was “Section 31,” which went straight to streaming on Paramount+ and was panned.
Though past “Star Trek” casts have continued on in movies before, Myers and Goldsman made the right call. A fifth season is the better way to wrap up this particular show. “Strange New Worlds” has embraced being a television show and what that medium means for how it tells its stories.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will complete its five year mission
The ending of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” was inevitable. It is a prequel series, so it couldn’t go on forever. Five seasons might be too short for some (especially with only 46 episodes total), but the Enterprise is on a five-year mission, too.
Indeed, the show has spent all three of its seasons thus far putting the pieces in place for “Star Trek: The Original Series.” Spock (Ethan Peck) is learning to become the Vulcan fans know him as, Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) and Scotty (Martin Quinn) have joined the Enterprise, and James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) is a recurring character; his arc on the show is learning to be the most famous Starfleet Captain ever.
The original “Star Trek” was canceled after its third season with no proper finale, but the Trekkies never went away. Petitions culminated in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” and sequel after sequel, fans got to watch the original “Trek” cast grow old until they finally bowed out with “The Undiscovered Country.”
Unlike “The Original Series,” “Strange New Worlds” is getting to go out on its own terms, and those terms have always been episodic. “Strange New Worlds” has some series-long running story threads and character arcs, sure, but almost every episode stands on its own as the Enterprise crew finds themselves on a new adventure. This isn’t the type of story that’s building to a grand finale that needs two hours to pack all its action into. “Strange New Worlds” is a television show, and it’d be inappropriate if it ended as anything but.
“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” is streaming on Paramount+.
