There’s Only 1 Thing I’m Glad For About Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Ending

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is ending with season 5, and there’s only one thing I’m glad about regarding this development. After a two-year wait, the highly anticipated Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 premieres July 17 on Paramount+. In 2024, Paramount+ renewed Star Trek: Strange New Worlds for season 4, which is currently in production. Season 5 will now close out the hit Star Trek prequel with a shortened six-episode season, which will begin filming in late 2025.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ now-formalized “five-year mission” falls in line with other Star Trek on Paramount+ series’ trajectories. Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Lower Decks both ended with their fifth seasons in 2024, whereas Star Trek: Picard was always planned for only 3 seasons, and Star Trek: Prodigy moved to Netflix to stream its two seasons. It’s unusual to know when Strange New Worlds will end so far ahead of time, especially when season 3 – which is now the midpoint of the series – hasn’t even premiered yet.

The fate of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, as well as the other Star Trek on Paramount+ series, is a result of the changing nature of streaming and the sale of Paramount Global to Skydance Media. Longtime Star Trek fans grew accustomed to the seven-year runs of Star Trek: The Next Generation and its 1990s spinoffs. While it’s gloomy to know that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has already set its endpoint, there’s one big advantage to Paramount+’s plan, as well.

I’m Glad Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Has Time To Plan Its Ending

Strange New Worlds Knows Its Endgame

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ executive producers and co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers now have the benefit of planning out how their prequel will end. After Strange New Worlds season 3, Goldsman and Myers know they have 16 episodes to wrap up Strange New Worlds‘ saga. What’s more, Strange New Worlds’ endpoint has been known since its inception: Strange New Worlds ends when Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) turns over command of the USS Enterprise to Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), which is when Star Trek: The Original Series begins.

In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, the crew of the USS Enterprise is now at the midpoint of their journey to becoming who they are in Star Trek: The Original Series. Lt. James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) is learning the finer points of starship command. Lt. Spock’s (Ethan Peck) explorations of his human emotions will eventually lead him to fully embrace Vulcan logic. Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) is gaining confidence and agency, while Scotty (Martin Quinn) is on the verge of falling in love with the Starship Enterprise.

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Even more intriguing than the known destinies of Star Trek: The Original Series‘ legacy characters is what happens to the people who won’t remain aboard Captain Kirk’s USS Enterprise. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will canonically explain the fate of Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley AKA Number One (Rebecca Romijn), and what happens to Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) and Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia). With its five-season plan in place, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds not only has a road map but also knows how many steps until the show’s endgame.

What Happened To Star Trek: Discovery Won’t Happen To Strange New Worlds

Discovery Planned To Run For 7 Seasons

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ assurance that it will end in season 5 spares Captain Pike’s prequel from the misfortune that befell Star Trek: Discovery. In early 2023, Star Trek: Discovery‘s cast and crew learned that the series would end with season 5 after production of the fifth season ended. To offer Star Trek: Discovery a more graceful way to end the series, Paramount+ allowed for three extra days to film a 12-minute epilogue to wrap up Captain Michael Burnham’s (Sonequa Martin-Green) saga.

Star Trek: Discovery‘s series finale, “Life Itself,” became an extra-long episode that wrapped up Captain Burnham’s pursuit of the Progenitors’ ancient technology before leaping ahead 30 years to give Burnham and the USS Discovery’s crew a poignant conclusion. While it wasn’t ideal, especially considering Star Trek: Discovery was preparing for season 6 and even expected a season 7, Discovery achieved a graceful exit despite its limitations.

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Thankfully, Paramount+ learned from its mistake with Star Trek: Discovery and gave Star Trek: Strange New Worlds plenty of notice as to when its show will end. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ final season can also become more of an event, since the popularity of Captain Pike’s series eclipses Star Trek: Discovery‘s. Announcing the end of a hit series in the middle of its run while offering two more seasons is an eyebrow-raising move by Paramount+, but it’s worlds better than what was offered to Star Trek: Discovery.

What A Short Final Season Means For Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

The Final Season Could Mean Bigger Episodes

Unlike Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Lower Decks, however, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds isn’t ending with a full 10-episode final season. For reasons unexplained, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 5 will only be six episodes, giving the series a total of 46 episodes overall. Comparatively, Star Trek: Lower Decks had 50 episodes, while Star Trek: Discovery ran for 65 episodes, since its early seasons were more than 10 episodes, because the show was initially co-financed by Netflix for international distribution.

While unconfirmed, there is a chance Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 5 could have extended episodes, breaking the show’s usual hour-long format. At the very least, fans are hoping Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ series finale will be feature-length. If this happens, Strange New Worlds would provide new ersatz Star Trek streaming movies, since there has been no movement by Paramount+ to develop new Star Trek streaming movies after the release of Star Trek: Section 31 in January 2025.

All good things must come to an end, and this includes Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers used to muse that Strange New Worlds could be a ’10-year show,’ and they recently teased their hopes to keep going and tell stories about Captain Kirk’s Starship Enterprise with Strange New Worlds’ cast. The silver lining is that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds still has three seasons and 26 episodes to come, and that’s worth looking forward to.