Viewers may be surprised to learn that Starfleet Academy Season 2 has already wrapped. The first season is airing now, and it’s generating something of a mixed reception in large part because it tries to blend nostalgic plots with a style and narrative aimed straight at Gen Z. There’s intense debate about viewership, but the demographics are really key to Paramount’s hopes rather than the overall numbers. The goal will be to bring in fresh audiences, and only Paramount know whether the show has succeeded.
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What is clear, though, is that Paramount bosses liked what they saw in Starfleet Academy. Production on Season 1 began in August 2024, wrapping in February 2025. Production on Season 2 began in August 2025, and has wrapped in February 2026. The pattern isn’t hard to spot, which means the odds are high that we’ll get a Season 3. But if it is indeed happening, then there will likely be some major changes.
Starfleet Season 1 Just Set Up Major Changes for Season 3
JStarfleet Academy Season 1, episode 8 features the return of Mary Wiseman’s Sylvia Tilly, one of the stand-out characters from Discovery. It’s a strong episode, returning to one of Voyager‘s most traumatic storylines, albeit with some rather unusual flourishes; Tilly, for example, has apparently fallen in love with theater. But when she makes her debut, Tilly explains why she isn’t part of the regular Starfleet Academy cast. Apparently she’s on rotation, working with the third years offworld.
That in itself is an important revelation, though. It means that first and second years are the only ones based from the Athena, the starship currently settled at San Francisco as the Academy home-base. Third years operate offworld, presumably helping them get used to being active in more dangerous environments, and to acclimatize them with life in the depths of space. It’s a sensible teaching strategy.
It does, however, mean that Starfleet Academy Season 3 will have to very different to the first two seasons. For one thing, Chancellor Ake will logically have less of a presence; the cadets will be offworld a lot more, not under her watchful eye. The same is likely to be true of other key characters, such as Jett Reno and Lura Thok. But don’t assume they’ll be working with Tilly instead; she’s on rotation, which means someone else could be assigned to the team.
But this also has cost implications. Starfleet Academy was reportedly quite expensive to make (some reports indicate it could have cost up to $10 million an episode), but those costs will be mitigated by reusing the Athena sets so extensively. It won’t be possible to reuse them so much for Season 3, which will completely change the cost profile. That means we shouldn’t take Starfleet Academy Season 3 for granted; we’ll simply have to wait and see whether it happens.
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images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
