Star Trek: Lower Decks star Tawny Newsome talks about the writers' room of the upcoming Starfleet Academy series in development at Paramount+
Star Trek: Lower Decks star Tawny Newsome says the upcoming Star Trek: Starfleet Academy series is "a new side to Star Trek." Starfleet Academy was announced in April, soon after Paramount+ revealed that the upcoming Star Trek: Discovery season 5 would be the series' final season. Newsome then Tweeted that she joined the Starfleet Academy writers' room, and she will be penning episodes of the new YA-focused show while continuing to voice Lieutenant Beckett Mariner in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5.
In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant about Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4's finale, talk turned to Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Tawny Newsome spoke about what it's been like since she joined the show's writers' room. Check out her quote below:
"It's a new side of Starfleet. It's a new side of Star Trek, which I think you can infer from the title. We just haven't seen this exact area. And yeah, I think that we're just leaning into that... I can't say enough about the people in the room. Like, the team is maybe my favorite part of the job, because everyone is so so great. And I feel like I've just made such great friends in that room... Everyone is so fun. Our showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Naga Landau did such an incredible job of assembling just the best people on Earth. Everyone is nice. Everyone is fun. Everyone has a different set of skills. I love it. I think the audience is really gonna love this show. I really do."
Very little has been revealed about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, and not even the era the series is set in has been confirmed. The announcement of Starfleet Academy hints that the new show will be set after Star Trek: Discovery season 5 because the verbiage says "for the first time in a hundred years..." This lines up with how, in the 32nd century, Starfleet Academy reopened in Discovery season 4 after a century of the United Federation of Planets being broken due to The Burn. Discovery's Lieutenant Sylvia Telly also left the USS Discovery to become an instructor at Starfleet Academy.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will introduce a slew of new young alien and human characters all vying for a career in Starfleet. Showrunner Alex Kurtzman also said at New York Comic Con that Starfleet Academy will be "really funny," and this lines up with Tawny Newsome lending her comedic voice and lifelong love of Star Trek as one of the show's writers. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy isn't expected to go into production until 2024 or premiere on Paramount+ until 2025, but the YA series showing a "new side of Star Trek" sounds very promising.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is expected to premiere in 2025 on Paramount+. Star Trek: Lower Decks is available to stream on Paramount+.
