Star Trek’s New Era Is Reversing a 20-Year Trend (& That’s Great)

Leaders of the newly-merged Paramount Skydance Corporation held a press conference on last week to discuss their plans for the entertainment company going forward, from broad strokes plans to specific franchises and minutia. They had promising things to say about many of their biggest properties, but the Star Trek franchise may have the most to gain from this change. The whole organization is overhauling its approach to streaming, and executive Dana Goldberg said that the company will be investing heavily in the Star Trek franchise. Most excitingly, she said the wall between the streaming productions and the movie productions will be torn down, putting the full might of Paramount at Starfleet’s disposal for the first time in decades.

“Star Trek is absolutely a priority, and it’s a priority across the company,” said Goldberg — who is both the co-chair of Paramount Pictures and the chair of Paramount Television — according to a report by Variety. “We’re not going to be siloed off so that there’s a conversation happening about television and another conversation [about film plans].”

This is a huge win for the Star Trek franchise, which has sadly been limited by internal divisions for years now. Back when Star Trek was a huge hit for CBS on broadcast TV, it only made sense that CBS’ parent company Paramount would capitalize on that success, leading to big screen movies like The Wrath of Khan. However, Paramount and CBS split in 2006, which is why Paramount’s movie trilogy from 2009 to 2016 had no synergy with the TV world at that time.

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The canonical positioning of those movies frustrates many fans to this day. They take place in a separate in-world continuity known as the Kelvin timeline, named for the attack on the USS Kelvin which was the first major event to differentiate this story from the original. For some, the Kelvin timeline has become a fun addition to the worldbuilding, but even those fans would likely be excited to see a new approach behind the scenes.

Fans of the newer, streaming-era Star Trek shows on Paramount+ also have a lot to look forward to here as the talent and resources of the movie studio backs up the ongoing successes of the serials. As it is, the streaming team has consistently put out big hits, and has even handled a made-for-streaming movie called Section 31 that was well received.

Made-for-streaming movies will not be a part of Paramount Skydance’s strategy going forward, according to the company’s new streaming executive Cindy Holland. The company has not announced any specific new plans for the Star Trek franchise, but the strategy alone already has many fans excited. For now, you can stream the Star Trek catalog on Paramount+.