New Dr. McCoy & Sulu in ‘Strange New Worlds’ Makes ‘Star Trek: Year One’ More Likely

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has made an announcement that sets up the beloved franchise to continue beyond the events of the show’s final episode, even if said events seem remarkably familiar. After debuting in 2022, Strange New Worlds quickly became Star Trek‘s flagship show. As well as feeling distinctly modern, the project also captured the vibe of classic Star Trek shows in ways that many of the other, more recent spinoffs have struggled to do.

Despite Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 only airing its finale in 2025, the fifth and final run has already wrapped production and will likely arrive in 2027, with Season 4 set to air in 2026. A recent reveal about what Trekkies can expect as Strange New Worlds draws to a close provides a glimpse of the show’s final stages. It doesn’t necessarily guarantee what Paramount’s plan will be after Season 5, but it does make certain rumors seem far more likely to be true.

‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Replaces All Necessary ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’ Characters For a Direct Sequel

The Franchise Finally Has a New Bones & Sulu

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Although it’s technically a Star Trek: Discovery spinoff, Strange New Worlds can be more accurately billed as a direct prequel to The Original Series, the Star Trek show that started it all in 1966 and ran for three seasons. While certain members of the original cast have sporadically returned to reprise their roles in other corners of the Star Trek franchise, Strange New Worlds boasts a completely overhauled call sheet that has replaced the established stars with new actors playing younger versions of the sci-fi icons.

However, Strange New Worlds hasn’t introduced all these new actors at once. While certain characters like Spock have been replaced from the prequel’s first episode, Strange New Worlds has also featured new members of the crew who never featured in The Original Series. As it has progressed, those newer figures have been gradually swapped out for more recognizable names. For example, the Enterprise’s chief engineer, Lt. Hemmer (Horak), has since perished, and Scotty (Martin Quinn) has made his debut as the character who will eventually take the title.

By the end of Strange New Worlds Season 3, there were only two notable absentees. Dr. McCoy and Hikaru Sulu, originally played by DeForest Kelly and George Takei, respectively, still hadn’t shown up. Now, it’s been announced that the characters will appear in Strange New Worlds Season 5’s finale in 2027. Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy will be played by The Expanse‘s Thomas Jane, and Sulu will be played by industry newcomer Kai Murakami. With Chekov, originally played by Walter Koenig, only introduced in The Original Series Season 2, Strange New Worlds has all the actors it needs to take the show’s events right up to the classic show’s first episode – if that’s what the writers want to do.

Why ‘Strange New Worlds’ Recasting of Bones & Sulu Suggests ‘Star Trek: Year One’ Could Be Happening

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Star Trek: Year One is an unconfirmed project that the Strange New Worlds showrunners have openly discussed as their goal after the show ends in 2027. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, producer Henry Alonso Myers explained that the writers are desperate to be given the chance to “continue telling the stories of how Pike’s crew transitions to Kirk’s crew.” There have been no solid discussions about making Year One, but introducing Jane and Murakami at the last second seems very much like a conscious effort to manifest the sequel show’s production.

If the intention was for Strange New Worlds to have a more finite ending in Season 5, then it would make more sense for Bones and McCoy to have more substantial roles rather than just showing up in the finale. Introducing two huge characters so late into the show’s run suggests there are larger plans for them both going forward – especially considering the sci-fi pedigree that Thomas Jane brings to proceedings after playing Miller in 24 episodes of The Expanse. While the complete recast certainly provides a nice full-circle moment either way, signs point toward a strong desire to make Star Trek: Year One, which would allow Jane and Murakami far more to do.

What ‘Star Trek: Year One’ Would Be About

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The Year One subtitle refers to the first 12 months of Captain Kirk’s (Paul Wesley) Starfleet career after he takes over command of the USS Enterprise from Captain Pike (Anson Mount). So, Mount would presumably step aside or take on a far less prominent role. Instead of feeling like a sequel to Strange New Worlds, which it variably would anyway, Year One would be even more of a direct prequel to The Original Series. When The Original Series begins, William Shatner’s Kirk and his crew have already been working together for a little while, and Year One would chronicle how those working and personal relationships came to be in even greater detail.

There’s no denying that a project like Year One would be incredibly risky, and it would also have a pretty short shelf life. As soon as those 12 months are over, Year One would just start essentially remaking episodes of The Original Series, which would be uncharacteristically unoriginal for a franchise like Star Trek. So, anything following Star Trek: Strange New Worlds that reuses the same cast would need to be meticulously written, narratively necessary, and hyper-aware of when it’s time to call it a day.

Release Date

May 5, 2022

Network

Paramount+