As the media hype is starting to ramp up for Academy’s debut, Strange New Worlds is adding the finishing touches and along with cast such as Anson Mount saying goodbye to their Enterprise, we have some new names announced to have joined for the final season.
Acting as a prequel to the original series, Strange New Worlds has helped to expand legacy characters having brought over Ethan Peck’s younger and less refined version of Spock, the first career steps of Nyota Uhura, a completely revamped Christine Chapel and smaller parts – such as Dr M’BEnga, Samuel Kirk and T’Pring among others – being revived for the new era. Since then we’ve also spent some time with a young Jim Kirk, even seeing his first time in command last season, and Scotty’s joined the lower decks of Engineering. As the show gets closer to the original series era, more of the future (erm, past…) Enterprise crew are joining the team.
The most intriguing of the new line up announced by trade press including THR is Thomas Jane taking on the role of Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy. No stranger to sci fi, Jane was a popular part of the Expanse series as down on his luck Detective Miller who’s private case swept him up in a political conspiracy. Jane’s also been in a huge amount of TV and film, from starring as Frank Castle in the 2004 Punisher adaption, to starring in comedy horror Deep Blue Sea to more recently starring in Amazon drama Troppo.
Joining Jane in bringing an original series character back to the screen is a newcomer to television, Kai Murakami. Having already made an impression through his work with the Royal Shakespeare company and earned multiple Olivier awards, Murakami is taking on the role of future helmsman Hikaru Sulu in the fifth and final season.
With the third season released earlier this year, it was announced that the show would end with a shortened six episode fifth season which is now in post production. Season 4 is expected to release mid to late 2026 on Paramount Plus.
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