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To boldly go! That’s what Starfleet Academy is striving to do again in the 32nd century and that’s the hook for the latest Star Trek series unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con. Fans will have to wait until early 2026 to see it but they got their first taste in the annual Star Trek panel at Hall H. The actors playing the cadets are fresh faces and target the young adults Paramount is hoping to draw in, but it’s the older cast that got the crowd riled up. 

Holly Hunter drew the biggest roar when she was named as Captain Nahla Ake of the USS Athena and chancellor of the new Starfleet Academy. Paul Giamatti, who appears at the end of the trailer as a Klingon-Tellarite antagonist whistling the Star Trek theme got the second biggest applause. 

“I think it was really interesting to get the offer to be the captain, but then also to combine that with being the chancellor,” Hunter addressed the crowd at San Diego Comic-Con. “It was an interesting dichotomy.”

Captain Ake is taking on a great deal of responsibility, but that’s a challenge that Hunter finds rich and potentially rewarding. She’s rebuilding the fleet from ground zero after The Burn devastated the Starfleet and created a galaxy-wide shortage of dilithium, making space travel and the ability to protect other worlds and planets difficult. It’s been 120 years since the Academy was last open. 

It’s a major turning point for the Federation. The mission is always the same, but beyond going where no man has gone before, Starfleet Academy must re-establish order, repairing diplomacy across the galaxy,  rebuild trust in Starfleet and manage the missions made off-Earth.

“It’s an interesting challenge because the captain is there to command and to analyze in energy situations and then to delegate. The Chancellor is there to guide, to collaborate, and to have tremendous empathy.” 

Hunter will extend a line of women wearing the rank of captain, while being featured as leading role, following Captain Kathryn Janeway from Voyager (Kate Mulgrew) Captain Phillipa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) and Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) from Discovery, and Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) from Lower Decks.

Space may be the final frontier, but there's no end to Popverse's love of the Star Trek universe. Hop aboard the starship Enterprise with our Star Trek watch order, explore strange new worlds with our upcoming Star Trek TV shows and movies list, seek out the new life of the franchise, and boldly go where no Star Trek film has ever gone before - with Quentin Tarantino?