When Star Trek: Strange New Worlds first revealed that Paul Wesley would arrive in Season 2 as none other than James T. Kirk, the excitement was...[dramatic pause]...palpable. Speculation ensued regarding what period of Kirk’s life we’d be seeing in the season, and whether he’ll be taking over as captain of the Enterprise and becoming a permanent piece of the impressive cast of characters, and all before Season 1 even debuted. The captain conjecture is arguably more important, considering we already know the eventual fate of the Paramount+ series’ current captain, Christopher Pike. So is Anson Mount already prepping to exit his second Star Trek series once Wesley makes his way to Strange New Worlds?
I was fortunate to speak to Anson Mount and the cast of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ahead of its premiere on May 5th for Paramount+ subscribers. While discussing the upcoming season, I asked Mount if there was anything he could say to ease the fears of fans worried about Pike’s crew status going forward beyond Season 1, and here's what the actor told me:
We wanted to do a true prequel — PREQUEL — to the original series, and that is couched in the Pike years. But, as you know, in the world of TV scripting, one season does not necessarily correspond to one year. As we get into the show, there’s really... I’m not sure we’ve really demarcated how far time is progressing between seasons. So, I don’t know. We’ll see where it ends up. But, yeah, no, that would be a very different show.
Star Trek canon dictates that Captain Christopher Pike will have a devastating accident that ultimately relieves him from active duty in Starfleet, and that it will happen sometime after James T. Kirk takes over as Captain of the Enterprise. With that said, Anson Mount seemed to indicate that a show featuring a Kirk-led Enterprise is not Strange New Worlds, at least not as he and the audience knows it. I’d choose to interpret his comments as saying as long as Strange New Worlds is a show, Anson Mount will be at the helm as Christopher Pike. Even though he could have just basically just meant Pike and Kirk are different leaders and would thus head up different shows.
The added reveal that was partially assumed is that Paul Wesley’s take on James T. Kirk (which received an the official blessing from William Shatner) will predate the character’s time as Captain of the Enterprise during at least his earliest days in Strange New Worlds. The original Star Trek laid out a few significant events from Kirk’s past before he became Captain, so it’s possible his arrival in Season 2 has ties to one or several of those events.
My personal hope is we’ll see Kirk during his tenure teaching at Starfleet Academy, as that sounds like a very interesting section of his life where there is much to explore in terms of the character's development. Plus, we’ve already seen so much of Kirk as a Captain in the original Star Trek, so it’d be a bummer to see Anson Mount's less-established Pike brushed aside for more of the same.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will make it strange new debut on Paramount+ on Thursday, May 5th. It’s the latest but not the only Star Trek show arriving in 2022, so now is as good a time as any to see what’s ahead and maybe catch up to get in on all the fun!
