Paramount+Even for those only vaguely paying attention to inside baseball Hollywood tidings, it's safe to say there’s a lot changing with Paramount at the moment. And in the midst of a historic merger, the parent company, which owns the rights to the Star Trek franchise, is almost certainly heading toward some kind of pivot. Whether that pivot is radical or not remains to be seen, but one thing is true: For the first time since Star Trek: Discovery was in production in 2016, there are no new Star Trek TV series immediately in production after the wrap of Starfleet Academy Season 2. At least none that are publicly announced.As pointed out by TrekMovie on March 3, the conclusion of filming on Starfleet Academy Season 2 brings us to a strange moment in modern Star Trek production history. Discovery was announced in 2016, and production was underway 10 years ago, in 2016. Discovery eventually hit CBS All-Access (now Paramount+) in 2017, and since then, there’s been, if not one, often multiple different Star Trek series in production. Just three years ago, in 2023, fans were reveling in the triumph of Picard Season 3, the highs of Strange New Worlds Season 2, and Season 4 of Lower Decks. 2024 and 2025 saw the franchise start to shrink, with the finales of Discovery and Lower Decks both airing that year, as well as the second season of Prodigy, which seemed to signal the end of that series, too. Paul Giamatti and Holly Hunter at the premiere of Starfleet Academy. | Stephanie Augello/THR/The Hollywood Reporter/Getty ImagesThat brings us, more or less, to the present day: Strange New Worlds Season 3 — after being delayed by the writers’ strike — was released in 2025, as was the standalone streaming film led by Michelle Yeoh, Section 31. For a brief moment, SNW was the only new Trek TV series airing, which changed with the release of Starfleet Academy Season 1 early this year. Because that show has just wrapped Season 2, we’ll get at least 10 more episodes of that series after the Season 1 finale airs on March 12, 2026. Strange New Worlds Season 4 is expected to air later this year, and there’s a good bet it will be released in the fall, to help celebrate the 60th anniversary of Star Trek on September 8. After that, in 2027, a truncated final, six-episode Season 5 will conclude Strange New Worlds, which, as of this writing, has also wrapped filming. This pause, or time of uncertainty, wasn’t lost on longtime Trek veteran Jonathan Frakes, who, in a recent interview, confirmed with Inverse that he did not direct any episodes of Starfleet Academy Season 2 or Strange New Worlds Season 5. When asked if there was now a Star Trek episode in the works that he directed that we have yet to see (following the release of “300th Night”), Frakes said directly: “Not that I know of.” This means, as of now, Starfleet Academy Episode 9 is the most recent Star Trek story that Frakes has directed.Jonathan Frakes, directing Starfleet Academy. | Paramount+Will it be his last? Or more to the point: Will 2028 become the first year since 2017 in which there isn’t a new Star Trek series? With a Star Trek feature film currently in the early stages, with Dungeons & Dragons directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein, it seems possible that the in-development project might happen before another season of Starfleet Academy or another new Trek series entirely. But then again, none of this may mean much, and a third season of Starfleet Academy could very well follow a second, along with a possible new slate of Star Trek shows after 2027. To that point, speaking to Inverse, current Star Trek boss Alex Kurtzman said that he felt Starfleet Academy has a “limitless engine” for storytelling and the series could go on for a very long time. The Star Trek franchise has gone through radical moments of transformation before. After 18 years of non-stop TV shows from 1987 to 2005, the Trek franchise seemed to end, only to reemerge four years later as a blockbuster film franchise directed by J.J. Abrams. Naysayers all predicted the streaming Trek era launched by Discovery wouldn’t last, but it did last, at least for the past decade, and perhaps longer.What will the new next generation of Star Trek look like after 2027? The only person with that information would either be a time traveler or a member of the Q Continuum.Starfleet Academy Season 1 streams on Paramount+.Phasers on Stun!: How the Making — and Remaking — of Star Trek Changed the WorldAmazon -