Phasers locked: Paramount+ releases official trailer for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Interplanetary adventures, political intrigue, and a spot of romance are in store for the crew of the USS Enterprise in the official trailer for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The spinoff prequel series debuts on Paramount+ next month.

As we’ve reported previously, one of the highlights of Star Trek: Discovery‘s second season was the appearance of classic original series (TOS) characters Capt. Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Number One (Rebecca Romijn), and Spock (Ethan Peck). All three reprise their roles for Strange New Worlds.

Babs Olusanmokun plays Dr. M’Benga; Celia Rose Gooding has the unenviable task of filling Nichelle Nichols’ shoes as Cadet Nyota Uhura; Jess Bush plays Nurse Christine Chapel; Melissa Navai plays Lt. Erica Ortegas; Bruce Orak plays an Aenar named Hemmer who is blind in one eye (Aenar are an albino subspecies of Andorians that are generally depicted as blind); and Christina Chong plays La’An Noonien-Singh (a relation of the classic revenge-obsessed Star Trek villain Khan).

The brief teaser that dropped last month opened with a bearded and presumably retired Pike surveying his ranch from horseback. (A retired Pike is consistent with the TOS episode “The Cage:” we first meet Pike as he is debating leaving from Starfleet.) Then a small spacecraft zoomed past, and we caught tantalizing glimpses of the titular strange new worlds as a voice called Pike back to action.

The new official trailer opens with Pike beaming into what appears to be a bitter dispute between two alien factions. The aliens don’t seem to be expecting him, given his awkward reception (“Hi… sorry to interrupt”). We see crew members beaming down to the surface of a comet and encountering a large glowing golden egg-shaped structure.

“If you want to seek out new life, go where the aliens are,” Pike tells us. But that alien life might not be receptive to first contact, as Pike and the Enterprise find themselves under fire by aliens who consider their presence to be “blasphemy.” And romance blooms for both Pike and Spock (separately, not with each other).

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuts on Paramount+ on May 5, 2022. The streaming platform has ready greenlighted a second season, with Paul Wesley (Vampire Diaries ) joining the cast as future Enterprise Capt. James T. Kirk.

Listing image by Paramount+