Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3 and the trailers and teasers for Season 4.
We’ve recently been shown another new trailer for Strange New Worlds’ fourth season – perhaps the last trailer before the premiere next month. I thought it could be fun to go over the trailer together and see what – if anything – we might be able to learn or infer about the stories that lay in wait!
Along with the trailer, Skydance-Paramount released a brand-new poster for Season 4, too – a cropped version of which you can see above. The poster is pretty plain, in my opinion, depicting the main characters standing on a mountain or rocky outcrop, with the USS Enterprise above them. Clouds seem to form a swirling circular pattern around the Enterprise, but that’s about it. Compared with the fun, artistic posters we got for Season 3 – which depicted pairs of characters in various moments inspired by some of the stories – I felt this one was pretty plain. “Plain” is not synonymous with “bad,” of course! And it is noteworthy, I think, that Paul Wesley’s Kirk is now considered a main character – or a major enough character to warrant a spot on the poster with the rest of the cast.
A few weeks ago, I noted that an earlier Season 4 trailer seemed to contain a lot of talk about the dangers of Starfleet’s mission of exploration, and of death. I wondered if that might be hinting at something big and explosive this season – the loss of a main character, perhaps. That trend didn’t really continue this time, though, and while the latest trailer was still action-packed, there wasn’t really any of that potential “foreshadowing” of death. Make of that what you will!
Also last time, I half-jokingly commented on “Spirk” in the trailer, as Kirk and Spock seemed to be paired up and even hugged at one point. That was more tongue-in-cheek than anything, but this time… well, there were definitely undertones to the clips of Kirk and Spock, especially at the beginning of the trailer.
Now, I doubt whether Strange New Worlds will go for any kind of explicit Kirk-Spock romance in Season 4, and I suspect these moments, however they’re arrived at, will be about building the friendship and brotherhood between the two men. Spock, at least in Strange New Worlds’ canon, seems pretty clearly heterosexual, and Kirk told us back in Season 2 that he’s either married or engaged (presumably to Carol Marcus?) in this era. So, again, my suspicion is that we won’t see any overt romance between Kirk and Spock. But their moments together definitely seem to take them beyond mere friendship and hint at the creation of a much stronger bond.
The season’s tagline, according to the poster, is “boldly go one step closer to where it all began.” Referencing Strange New Worlds’ status as a prequel to The Original Series, this line hints at a season of episodes that will manoeuvre characters into position for the beginning of TOS, and part of that seems to include building up the Kirk-Spock friendship. Kirk and Spock start out in TOS as already great friends; we never really see the beginnings of that bond. Perhaps one storyline in Strange New Worlds’ fourth season will show us how that friendship came to be.
That tagline, though, could also imply that some characters will be stepping away from the series ahead of the truncated fifth and final season. We already know that Strange New Worlds has cast both Sulu and Dr McCoy – the latter being played by the venerable Thomas Jane, who excelled in The Expanse a few years ago. That could be another indication that the likes of Ortegas (the ship’s helm officer) and Dr M’Benga in sickbay could be stepping back. Dr M’Benga was seen a couple of times in The Original Series, but he’d clearly ceased to be the Enterprise’s chief medical officer by that time. And Ortegas may have departed the ship, taken a promotion, left Starfleet… or passed away.
Then there’s Una, La’an, and Pelia. Pelia didn’t even make the cut for the poster, and while we’ve seen her in a previous clip from the season, she was entirely absent from this trailer. Una and La’an may also be on the chopping-block if the show’s writers and producers aim to reposition characters to set up the beginning of TOS, though neither seems to have explicit replacements in the way Pelia has with Scotty, Dr M’Benga has with Dr McCoy, or Ortegas has with Sulu. But I still think, especially after what we saw last time, that a death or other departure for one or more of these characters is a possibility in Season 4.
There was a lot of Kirk in the trailer, and not very much Pike. Captain Pike may have drawn the short straw this time, again following that trend of going “one step closer” to the beginning of The Original Series. Because we know Pike’s ultimate destination, he can’t be written out of the show! But he does seem – based not only on this trailer, but the previous one, too – to be taking more of a back seat. I hope that won’t be the case; this was “the Captain Pike show” that fans were clamouring for a few years ago, and I still want to spend more time with this incarnation of the character.
That leads into my next point, which isn’t about the trailer directly, but rather about the direction Strange New Worlds has taken and now seems ready to double-down on. I’m not convinced, I’m afraid, that this series needed to be such a direct prequel to TOS. I think I’d have been much happier, all things considered, to have spent less time with legacy characters like Kirk, Scotty, and Chapel, and to have spent more time with Captain Pike and his crew – some of whom we glimpsed in The Cage, but were never seen again. The core concept of the series – at least, the series that I wanted to see – was, as I said, “the Captain Pike show;” an exploration-focused, episodic show in the vein of classic Star Trek, but that just happened to be set before Kirk’s famous five-year mission. It didn’t need to include all of these characters… and I don’t think it needs to be such an overt prequel.
But all of that’s for the birds now, eh?
We seemed to get another clip of a scene from the earlier trailer, showing Kirk yelling “noo!” as something happens off-screen. I speculated last time that this could be a character death, and Kirk’s line to Spock in this trailer about “saving [their] friends” could be connected to that. Perhaps the event that pushes Kirk and Spock together is something traumatic; an incident which forces them to come together to help the ship and crew. That, in turn, could lead to the scene we glimpsed at the beginning of the trailer, perhaps as the two men decompress and begin to process whatever it is that they went through.
There was an interesting clip of Kirk (at least, I’m pretty sure it’s Kirk), with his phaser raised, as several characters appear to be transporting in, with either a large window or perhaps the main viewscreen behind. These transporter beams *looked* to be Starfleet in origin (based on how transporter beams have looked previously in Strange New Worlds)… so why would Kirk feel threatened by that? I would point out, though, that we don’t see these people materialise. They could be here to help… or not.
There was a new admiral briefly seen in the trailer – someone other than Admiral April. This character seems to be telling the crew that what they’re being ordered to do “is hard,” and combined with the earlier clip of Kirk… I wonder if this new character is going to be one of Star Trek’s many “badmirals!” A rogue admiral, or an admiral ordering the crew to violate their own ethical boundaries, is pretty much a stock character in Star Trek at this point, but we haven’t really seen much of that in the modern era. It would be interesting if Strange New Worlds were to introduce this kind of antagonist in Season 4.
Those two clips could easily be from different episodes, though – and I could be way off base with this character and his intentions. We only saw the briefest glimpse of him, he doesn’t even have a name, and simply being an admiral and giving orders doesn’t automatically mean he’s gonna be an evil-doing villain! I just thought it seemed like a possibility.
Dr M’Benga’s line to Pike about time was especially interesting, and I wonder if we’re going to get some kind of time travel or time-bending story at some point. Again, time travel is pretty common in Star Trek, and Strange New Worlds has already done stories sending characters backwards and forwards through time, so it wouldn’t be unexpected. Given that Pike’s future is set in stone, I wonder what he might make of time travel; does he now see the dangers in it, or would he be willing to embrace it if there was a way to use it for the greater good?
An intimidating alien ship fires on the Enterprise, and I think I’m right in saying that this isn’t the same vessel that we saw being prominently featured in the previous trailer. I don’t recognise the design, so this could be a brand-new alien faction, or it could be intended to be a new type of ship for someone we’re already familiar with. This clip also gave me the impression that it was being witnessed from behind glass; perhaps the conflict is being seen from another character’s perspective aboard a third vessel.
One of the clips in the trailer appears to have been “mirrored;” La’an, Una, and Ortegas all have their Starfleet badges on the wrong side of their jackets. Was that a “goof,” or a mistake in the trailer? Or is it something we’re gonna see in the finished episode… for some reason? No idea, but I thought it was worth mentioning!
Could it be a hint at a visit to the Mirror Universe, though? That… doesn’t seem likely. The Mirror Universe doesn’t literally “mirror” the way characters look, and while, if Strange New Worlds was gonna do a Mirror Universe story, those three characters could fit without treading on the toes of established canon, I’m still not convinced. Modern Star Trek has done a lot with the Mirror Universe since 2017, as well as similar dystopian settings, and with the Mirror Universe having never really been my favourite part of the franchise… I’m content for Strange New Worlds to steer clear of it!
Scotty seems to get a romantic encounter in the new season, sharing a kiss with a character who I thought might’ve been the Vulcan cadet we saw in the first teaser clip. Not so sure that’s who it is now, having looked more closely, but in any case, giving Scotty a storyline like that could be fun. Anything’s better than more Spock romance, right?
Did we see a *zombie* aboard the Enterprise (or a similar-looking derelict ship)? At one point near the end of the trailer, a very zombie-esque character raises a finger to their lips in a “shush” motion, and… yeah. They look like they could be some kind of zombie. That could be a trick of the light, but I’ve seen other fans speculating that the previous trailer contained a scene in engineering with La’an where she may have been surrounded by similar-looking “zombie” characters. I didn’t read that clip that way last time… but maybe I got that wrong.
This is already running long for an article about a two-minute trailer, so let’s quickly run through a few other things I noticed. I like the city we see as a shuttle approaches; it felt like it could be a Federation colony, or maybe one of those “lawless” settlements that modern Star Trek likes to visit. It’s always cool to see a shuttle being flown – though we also see a shuttle encountering a problem at one point. The settlement also had a hot air balloon, which was funny – I wonder if anyone’s gonna take a ride in it?
Did someone draw on Captain Pike’s face while he was asleep? In one clip he seemed to have some kind of marking or drawing on half of his face, while a group of aliens (and some members of the crew) were present. That clip also looked like it could involve a supernova or perhaps a wormhole. Spock having posters in his quarters (if indeed that room is his quarters) was kinda funny.
We saw clips involving sword fighting, riding on horseback, wearing dresses, and a dragon-like creature attacking the Enterprise. Is that hinting, perhaps, at another fantasy-inspired story? I wasn’t wild about The Elysian Kingdom back in Season 1, to be honest, but if a story like that was played a bit more straight, with some of the familiar fantasy ideas coming into Star Trek’s galaxy… I could see that being interesting. Lower Decks already established that some human settlements use “dragons” in some capacity, so it’s not totally out of left-field.
I couldn’t tell what Uhura might’ve been doing with a drone while wearing a spacesuit, but maybe it’s connected to the black hole we saw. The black hole was glimpsed this time, but was more prominent in the previous trailer. Admiral April telling Pike he’s going on a “fun” mission could set up something comedic… or it could lead to a dark twist; perhaps even an episode where a character is killed. Something about the way he said it, and the way it was presented, just made me feel that “fun” might not actually mean “fun” in this instance!
Several clips showed the ship in flight, encountering various phenomena, and at one point we hear Ortegas telling everyone to “hang on,” perhaps suggesting she’s about to pull a difficult or dangerous manoeuvre. The away mission that, last time, I said could’ve taken the crew back to the Vezda prison looks a bit different now that we’ve seen it from a different angle, for which I’m glad. I still think this set design isn’t the greatest, but seeing it from a new angle – as the crew are seemingly ambushed by Andorians – definitely improved things.
We also saw a second, much shorter clip of one of the dinosaurs or dino-like aliens. I still can’t tell if this will be a time travel story to ancient Earth or if we’re gonna see dinosaur-eque aliens on another planet, but I’m definitely curious! Spock seems to be addressing an Orion or a group of Orions when he warns that “the finest crew in Starfleet” will fight back. I also glimpsed what looked like a Gorn ship, perhaps implying that the Gorn aren’t completely gone from the show. And one of the buildings – perhaps in the settlement with the hot air balloon – seemed to have a digital display with writing in Klingon as well as Chinese.
Is Pike being beamed away from the bridge against his will? One very brief snippet seemed to suggest he might be! And was Spock conjuring something by magic, at one point? Again, it looked like he was. We see at least two characters walking or clambering on the Enterprise’s hull – I assume one might be Uhura, because that could be where she launched her drone. Not sure about the other, though.
So I think that’s all for today!
I encourage you to take a look at the trailer for yourself, and to look at other breakdowns and analyses from elsewhere in the fan community. I could be way off-base with some of my assumptions and guesses, and other folks have undoubtedly spotted things I’ve missed. Still, the trailer looked fun, certainly seemed action-packed, and it’s set the stage for what I hope will be an interesting and enjoyable season of Star Trek.
What I didn’t see was anything to indicate that Skydance-Paramount is gonna really lean into the franchise’s big sixtieth anniversary. I’ve said before that I’d have loved to see a crossover, perhaps the return of an actor from The Original Series, or a storyline that links up in a big way with something from past iterations of Star Trek. Strange New Worlds Season 4 will run through September – with episodes presumably airing either side of the anniversary. It would’ve been the perfect moment to do something big to really celebrate this milestone, and I’m still crossing my fingers and hoping we get *something* like that.
I hope this has been interesting – and please take all of this with a grain of salt! I have no “insider information” about the upcoming season, and at the end of the day, all of this is just one old Trekkie’s *subjective, not objective* take.
When Season 4 hits our screens next month, I’m planning to write individual episode reviews. I hope you’ll join me for those! And if you missed it, I’ve also talked about previous trailers and clips for the upcoming season. You can find the first of those articles by clicking or tapping here, and the second by clicking or tapping here. The sixtieth anniversary has also been a cause for celebration here on the website! I’ve written up a re-watch of Where No Man Has Gone Before, the second pilot for The Original Series. And most recently, I’ve also written up a re-watch of The Royale, from Season 2 of The Next Generation, which is the earliest episode of Star Trek that I can ever remember watching. Check out those posts by following the links! And until next time… Live Long and Prosper, friends!
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 will premiere on Paramount+ on the 23rd of July 2026. Seasons 1-3 are available to stream on Paramount+ now, and are also available on DVD/Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – remains the copyright of the Paramount Skydance Corporation. Some still frames used in this article were edited using A.I. tools to remove logos and watermarks. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.
Trekking with Dennis 