Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is settling into the back half of Season 1, and there’s no shortage of praise from Paramount+ subscribers when it comes to the franchise’s newest series. The sci-fi series' cast and crew have apparently been privy to all sorts of praise regarding the characters and the storytelling, and the good vibes have been impacting Season 2 in a positive way. Star Melissa Navia confirmed to CinemaBlend that fans' passionate responses have “electrified” the filming of Season 2, which she claims is even better than Season 1. No small boasts for the Erica Ortegas actress!
I spoke to Melissa Navia recently about the positive reception that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has earned, and asked if she and her fellow cast members had a feeling that the show would be as well-received as it currently is. As Navia shared her answer, she spoke vaguely about the difference between filming Season 1 and 2, and how hearing about Trekkies’ thoughts impacted the filming process for the upcoming season.
This particular season we’re filming, Season 2, has been electrified because of the fact we’re filming Season 2, but we’re getting to watch the world experience Season 1. And so, we’re seeing all that love and that’s infoming what we’re doing. It’s just been two seasons of an amazing crew, [and] an amazing cast. Everybody in the cast is as awesome as you want them to be, as you think they are. They’re funny, they’re just great people to be around. I’m an introvert and I still would hang out with them every day if I needed to.
It sounds like the overall response to Season 1's twists and turns has been noticeably encouraging for the cast and crew of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as they bring Season 2 together. It's unclear if she was just speaking about the actors, or if the writers were also in that mix. It'd be pretty crucial (and wild as well) to learn that the creative team was actively gauging Season 1 reactions in realtime while filming later episodes, at least as far as knowing what viewers want to see more of. I guess it makes sense they’d pay attention to the reception, especially considering Strange New Worlds largely came to be because the fandom wanted to see it.
Christina Chong teased in a prior conversation with CinemaBlend that Season 2 was on a “whole other level” compared to Season 1, and Melissa Navia took that a bit further. When I asked her about Season 2, she made the wonderfully bold claim that it somehow exceeds the already widely acclaimed Season 1:
I think I would even go so far as to say it’s even better than 1, and Season 1 we are really happy with. Season 2, we just keep getting these scripts that are just knocking it out of the park. It incorporates Trek, and it incorporates history, it incorporates actual science and technology. And then it interweaves it in a way that makes you want to be on the Enterprise. It makes you really fall in love with this world and be a part of it.
It’s hard for me to imagine Season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds outdoing the already phenomenal first season, but I’m ready to trust Melissa Navia all the same. (Especially with Paul Wesley coming in as James Kirk.) Could the star's take on the new scripts “knocking it out of the park" tie back to the writers reacting to fans' meticulous criticisms and praise?
Melissa Navia obviously couldn’t give story details on what all is ahead, but she did speak in broad strokes about Strange New Worlds Season 2. The actress made it clear that fans should expect the unexpected, saying:
Season 2 we’re gonna go to places that you just didn’t expect, couldn’t expect, but you’re gonna be really happy that we did. People are already talking about Season 3 and like my head is just trying to wrap its head around Season 2, we’re like barreling toward the end. We have some of the biggest scenes we’ve filmed yet, especially for me, to come still. So, very exciting.
It’s unclear whether or not Melissa Navia was referring to the show’s decision-makers or fans when referring to Season 3, but it’s exciting to hear that she's aware of the convo, whoever is having it. It's unlikely that Paramount+ would be holding back on announcing Season 3 news, but it's certainly possible.
I’m especially interested in what some of those “biggest scenes” entail, though we’ll have to wait a long time to see them either way. At least there’s still plenty of new Trek on the way in 2022 to hold us over once Season 1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds concludes.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds still has some new episodes left in Season 1, which fans can catch on Thursdays on Paramount+. With all the recent unexpected reveals, I can only imagine what’s on the way for the season finale, so fingers crossed that it'll be as strong as every other episode so far.
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