Over the weekend Star Trek: Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green and executive producer Michelle Paradise were in São Paulo, Brazil to promote the upcoming fifth and final season at CCXP, the biggest pop culture event in Latin America. In addition to announcing season 5 is coming in April and unveiling a new clip, the pair also offered some more details on what fans can expect. TrekMovie has partnered up with our friends at TrekBrasilis to bring you coverage of CCXP 2023.
More “fun” and more episodic
Michelle Paradise and Sonequa Martin-Green held back-to-back panels at CCXP on Saturday, one on the main Thunder Stage and one on the Omelete Stage. They talked up the upcoming season, including how season 5 is going to be a bit different than previous seasons:
Michelle Paradise: This season will be a lot of action, a lot of adventure, a lot of fun. We will also – as we always do in Star Trek: Discovery – explore meaningful themes as well, the family onboard Discovery, the community, all those sorts of things. We did a bit of a tonal shift this season while still maintaining what Discovery is. And it’s a lot of fun.
Sonequa Martin-Green: It’s going to be a wild ride, y’all.
This shift will also be seen in the structure of the 10-episode season:
Paradise: Season 5 is going to be a wonderful mix. The DNA of Discovery always has those serialized stories over the course of a season. This season the nature of that serialized story allows us to have more episodic adventures. So I think people are really gonna dig it. There are some very cool adventures and some really fun episodes.
Even though they didn’t know it was going to be the final season of the series when it was originally shot, the showrunner did say they still tried to take risks in season 5:
Paradise: Every season we try to go bigger and better than ever before. We have incredible technology like the AR wall and using that better. This season is our best.
New unique characters
Season 5 will include some new faces with Callum Keith Rennie joining the main cast, playing N’Var Starfleet Captain Rayner. Elias Toufexis and Eve Harlow have recurring roles playing the main adversaries L’ak and Moll. Both Martin-Green and Paradise expounded on what the new actors brought to the season:
Martin-Gree: These guys are brilliant so you can definitely expect to see some amazing performances from the three of them. They came into the family, we welcomed them with open arms and they took off running with us as if they had always been there. And you will love what happens with them. I feel like their story is unique. It’s unique to the show. What happens with all the characters actually is quite culminating. I think you will love Callum. I think you’ll love Eve and I think you will love Elias, for sure.
Paradise: Yeah, they’re really wonderful actors, wonderful characters. I think it’s going to be really fun to see how Burnham responds to these new characters. Elias and Eve pose quite the challenge in terms of the storyline and what their characters are going to do this season. And Callum, he’s wonderful.
Additional shooting allowed for a “satisfying” series conclusion
Production on the fifth season had wrapped up before Paramount decided to make it the final season. Both the star and executive producer talked about getting the opportunity to go back into production to turn the season finale into a series finale:
Paradise: We did not know going into Season 5 that it would be our final season. We found out after we were done shooting the season. So thankfully, Paramount+ and CBS Studios gave us the ability to go back and shoot some additional scenes. So really, at that point, it was about wrapping it up in the best way and having it feel wonderful for all of the people who love Star Trek.
Martin-Green: Michelle and the team put together an addendum shoot that Paramount+ and CBS Studios allowed us to do. And so we went back and wrapped it up. When you see it, it is beautifully culminating… I really believe it was satisfying. It really ties up really well.
Both also talked about how wrapping up the show makes them feel…
Paradise: It’s going to be bittersweet. Thank you all for loving the show as much as we do. Thank you for supporting us over all these years. Star Trek fans are the best fans, thank you. And we really didn’t feel like… it’s bittersweet as it is ‘til the end. I feel like you will be–it will feel like a satisfying conclusion. And it’s a heck of a season. It was a lot of fun to do. Every season that we do we want to do it bigger and better and bolder than the season before and I think you’re in for quite a treat with this new season. It’s really a lot of fun. It’s awesome.
Martin-Green: It’s a roller coaster of emotions. It’s bittersweet. It’s sad. It’s shocking. It’s celebratory. We feel a lot of joy and peace… because we can look back on it now in hindsight and see it very clearly. And as grateful as we were going through it, now we can look back and be like, “Look what we did.” I personally feel that God showed up and showed out, for me with being able to have this experience with all of us. We’ll always have it. It’s unforgettable.
Paramount+ announced the final season will debut in April around the world, but they have not yet set a specific date.
Discovery seasons one through four are currently streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the U.K., Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia and Austria. Seasons two and three are also available on the Pluto TV “Star Trek” channel in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel.
