Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Cast Holly Hunter in Star Role

Holly Hunter will play a Starfleet captain and chancellor of Starfleet Academy in the new Star Trek series.

By Jamie Lovett

Award-winning actress Holly Hunter will lead Paramount+'s upcoming Star Trek: Starfleet Academy series. Paramount+ announced on Tuesday that Hunter is to play a Starfleet captain serving as Starfleet Academy's chancellor in the new series. The series follows a fresh class of Starfleet cadets who have enrolled at the academy, charting their coming of age at the institution. CBS Studios is producing Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which is set to begin production this summer. Specifics about the show have been kept under wraps, but previous teases have hinted that the show will take place in the 32nd century of the Star Trek universe, the same era seen in Star Trek: Discovery's final three seasons.

"It feels like we've spent our entire lives watching Holly Hunter be a stone-cold genius," co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau said in a statement. "To have her extraordinary authenticity, fearlessness, sense of humor, and across the board brilliance leading the charge on Starfleet Academy is a gift to all of us, and to the enduring legacy of Star Trek."

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(Photo: Ricky Middlesworth/Disney/Pixar)

What is Star Trek: Starfleet Academy about?

According to a synopsis from Paramount+, "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy introduces viewers to a young group of cadets who come together to pursue a common dream of hope and optimism. Under the watchful and demanding eyes of their instructors, they discover what it takes to become Starfleet officers as they navigate blossoming friendships, explosive rivalries, first loves and a new enemy that threatens both the Academy and the Federation itself."

Kurtzman and Landau are Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's co-showrunners. They also serve as executive producers alongside Gaia Violo, Aaron Baiers, Olatunde Osunsanmi, Jenny Lumet, Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth, Frank Siracusa, and John Weberby. Violo wrote Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's premiere episode. CBS Studios, in association with Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment, is producing the series 

What's next for the Star Trek franchise?

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is nearing production as Star Trek: Discovery, which launched the Star Trek franchise into the streaming television era, is nearing its final episode. Ahead of Star Trek: Discovery Season 5's premiere, ComicBook asked Kurtzman about Star Trek's future.

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"I spent a lot of time that first season [of Discovery] really kind of meditating on, you know, this incredible universe that has been around for so long and how much more can be done with it, how many amazing stories there are to tell. There's really an infinite number of stories to tell. I only want to make another Star Trek show if there's something to say. I don't wanna do it just to do more. I think that would be a huge disservice to Star Trek; it would be a huge disservice to the fans, and I think the fans would feel it instantaneously. They would know this is not authentic. Because if there's one thing that Trek fans know, it's authenticity.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy joins Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks, and the upcoming Star Trek: Section 31 movie among Paramount+'s Star Trek offerings (Star Trek: Prodigy has since moved to Netflix). Star Trek: Discovery concludes its run with its current season, and Lower Decks will end with Season 5.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is currently filming its third season.

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