Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Creator No Idea When Production Will Start

It may be a while before Star Trek: Strange New Worlds begins its maiden voyage. The world is going through a global pandemic due to COVID-19. As such, most of Hollywood’s filming halted. Star Trek: Discovery wrapped its third season before the lockdown. There’s been no word on the Section 31 spinoff that hoped to film its pilot in Toronto after Discovery wrapped. Animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks is still in production with animators working from home. But without a clear path back to business as usual, creator Akiva Goldsman tells Variety he has “no idea” when Strange New Worlds will start shooting.

Goldsman does have a vision of what Strange New Worlds will represent for Star Trek. “We’re going to try to harken back to some classical Trek values, to be optimistic, and to be more episodic,” Goldsman says. “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. I imagine it to be closer to the original series than even DS9. We can really tell closed-ended stories. We can find ourselves in episodes that are tonally of a piece… It’s hard to do a shore-leave episode in the middle of a long, serialized arc.”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds brings back Anson Mount as Captain Pike, Ethan Peck as Spock, and Rebecca Romijn as Number One. They debuted in those roles in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery.

“Fans fell in love with Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn and Ethan Peck’s portrayals of these iconic characters when they were first introduced on Star Trek: Discovery last season,” said Julie McNamara, executive vice president and head of programming for CBS All Access, in a statement. “This new series will be a perfect complement to the franchise, bringing a whole new perspective and series of adventures to Star Trek.”

“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,” said Alex Kurtzman. “These iconic characters have a deep history in Star Trek canon, yet so much of their stories have yet to be told. With Akiva and Henry at the helm, the Enterprise, its crew and its fans are in for an extraordinary journey to new frontiers in the Star Trek universe.”

For now, fans can see the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds crew in action in Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Short Treks. Both series are streaming now on CBS All Access.