Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Showrunner Says Season 2 Doesn't Hold Back: "Let's Pretend This Is Our Last Season"
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is bringing it all to its second season. Fans got their first taste of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' second season during Star Trek Day in September, including the announcement that Carol Kane is taking over as the ship's new engineer following the tragic exit of the previous crewmember to hold that position. TrekMovie caught up with showrunner Henry Alonso Myers at the event to discuss what fans should expect from the upcoming season, aside from more of James T. Kirk and a crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks. Myers says they wanted to do more of what worked in the first season and treat this season like it could be their last.
"I want to say more of what's worked," Myers said. "But I would also say, in some ways, it's different. We were trying to take what worked and really amplify that. And then try to correct where we weren't happy with it. But the biggest thing we tried to do was not hold back stuff. We were really like, 'Okay, let's pretend this is our last season. And let's absolutely go for everything that we wanted to do.'"
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds began filming its second season before the first season debuted, meaning there wasn't much time for fan feedback to be taken into account. But Myers seems to feel they had a good handle on what was working.
"I would say we tried to do comedy," he says, "and we were like, "Let's go for bigger comedy. Let's make things bigger and crazier." We tried to do drama, so we wanted to really kind of go to the gut of stuff and make episodes that were going to make you cry."
As for what didn't work, not every character got a spotlight episode, with Lt. Erica Ortegas getting left out. However, we already know that she's getting her episode in Season 2.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 is the highest-rated Star Trek on Rotten Tomatoes.
Strange New Worlds was also the biggest Star Trek series debut yet for Paramount+, based on how many viewers streamed it within the first 90 days of release.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 has already wrapped filming. There's no premiere date yet, but fans can look forward to tie-ins The Illyrian Enigma and The High Country to tide them over in the meantime. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 is streaming now on Paramount+.