‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Producers Promise Season 4 Will Be Better

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ third season was weird as hell. Not just for the wild swings in tone and genre the series went for in its latest round of boldly going, but for a season that veered largely in quality from one episode to the next, including a particularly notable nosedive in its back half. But now that the season is over, and work on the next has already concluded, its producers are beginning to acknowledge that stumble.

Speaking to TrekMovie recently after a screening of season 3’s finale, “New Life and New Civilizations”, Strange New Worlds producers Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers teased big things ahead for what will be the series’ final “full-length” season (Strange New Worlds will culminate with a truncated six-episode season 5, a negotiated upgrade from a sendoff movie). But while doing so, they also touched upon a few of the things they believe led to season 3 not quite hitting the mark—including laying the blame on the season’s production being halted by the 2023 Hollywood strikes.

“We just had more time [for season 4]. Just had more time, more continuous time,” Goldsman told TrekMovie. “We didn’t have staffing changes. We didn’t have a strike. The strike caused change. Those things are real. And starting up and shutting down and starting up again is complicated.”

Myers was less inclined to offer reasons as to why season 3 missed the mark, but instead offered that the extra time spent on season 4 allowed the creative team to push the stars into areas they knew they excelled in. “We know our cast deeply. We knew a lot of people’s strengths. We were able to lean into their strengths and have them try things that they hadn’t gotten to try, that we could see on screen,” Myers added. “The usual thing that we talk about on the show is that when we’re having fun, it’s usually a good sign. And [season 4] was really, really fun.”

Although the “fun” tease from Myers may raise a few eyebrows from fans who thought season 3 leaned into zany premises a little too often, it is heartening at least to see that Strange New Worlds‘ fourth season will keep the series’ penchant for experimentation. Hopefully more time spent on it can keep season 3’s noble intent of widening the variety of ideas and tones the series played with—which is never a bad thing for a Star Trek show to try inherently, even if it leads to a few misses!—but give the creative team more time to look over the stories they want to tell and avoid some of season 3’s more questionable impulses.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ fourth season is anticipated to hit Paramount+ sometime next year. The fifth and final season enters production this week.

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