The most popular of the streaming-era Star Trek shows, Strange New Worlds, is officially getting a fifth season. While Season 3 won’t begin until July 17, 2025, and Season 4 is currently in production, Paramount+ has confirmed that, yes, there will be a Season 5. But, there’s some sweet sorrow in this update. While there are still three seasons' worth of Strange New Worlds episodes that have yet to be seen by the general public, Season 5 will be the show’s final frontier.
As revealed in a new press release from Paramount+: “The fan-favorite original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS has been renewed for a fifth and final six-episode season ahead of the third season premiere this summer. Production will begin on the final season later this year.”
So, after Season 4 airs, presumably in 2026, there will be another season of Strange New Worlds, which will also be four episodes shorter than the previous seasons. Since the relaunch of the Star Trek franchise on TV in 2017 with Star Trek: Discovery, the seasons of new Trek shows have gotten increasingly shorter. While Discovery Season 1 had 15 episodes, Season 2 had 14, Seasons 3 and 4 each had 13, and the final season had 10. All three seasons of Star Trek: Picard had 10 episodes each, and Strange New World Seasons 1-4 will all end up having 10 episodes each.
With Strange New Worlds Season 5 only having six episodes, this will mean the show will end up having a total of 46 episodes in all. For context, Discovery got 5 seasons, and ended up with 65 episodes. Granted, we’re comparing space apples to mirror universe oranges here; many individual Discovery episodes aren’t really self-contained stories, whereas many SNW episodes are. To be clear, it’s great we’re getting so much more SNW, and that the end of the show isn’t probably happening until 2027 at the earliest.
But for now, Trekkies have a lot to look forward to, even if the future is uncertain. Currently, Strange New Worlds is the only new Trek series debuting in 2025. Though Starfleet Academy is expected to debut in 2026, meaning we’ll likely get the debut season of that series and Season 4 of Strange New Worlds next year. 2026 just happens to be the 60th Anniversary of the entire Trek franchise, so it’s reasonable to assume something very special has already been planned for both of those shows.
What will the future of the Final Frontier look like after that? It’s tough to say. With a changing landscape for streaming TV, and big shakeups at Paramount and other studios, it's safe to say Star Trek will re-materialize in some form or another. But for now, there’s no need to dine on ashes; there’s plenty to look forward to until the end.
