A quartet of Star Trek legacy actors are joining the cast of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy for Paramount+.
At the Star Trek Universe panel at Comic-Con Saturday, it was revealed that Star Trek: Discovery‘s Tig Notaro, Oded Fehr and Mary Wiseman, along with Star Trek: Voyager‘s Robert PIcardo, will join the already starry ensemble of the latest iteration. They join the previously announced cast Holly Hunter, Kerrice Brooks, Bella Shepard, George Hawkins, Karim Diané, Zoë Steiner and Paul Giamatti. Gina Yashere will also recur.
Notaro and Ricardo join as series regulars and will reprise their roles as Jett Reno and The Doctor. Fehr and Wiseman join as guest stars and will reprise their roles as Admiral Vance and Sylvia Tilly.
During Saturday’s Star Trek Universe panel, EP Alex Kurtzman explained that the new show will answer “who are the captains before they become captains, and what happens when they don’t become captains.”
Production is set to begin next month on the series, which 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.
Hunter, Kurtzman explained, is going to play the chancellor of the school.
The streamer has handed a series order to Star Trek: Starfleet Academy in March, a project that we exclusively reported had been in development since last year, from Alex Kurtzman‘s Secret Hideout, Roddenberry Entertainment and CBS Studios.
A video of the young cadet cast was also screened at Comic-Con.
Kurtzman and Noga Landau serve as co-showrunners and executive produce the series alongside EPs Gaia Violo, Aaron Baiers, Olatunde Osunsanmi, Jenny Lumet, Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth, Frank Siracusa and John Weber. The series’ premiere episode is written by Gaia Violo.