The writing for Starfleet Academy is underway now with Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Tawny Newsome in the writers’ room.
Starfleet Academy is the next series to come from the Trek franchise, and the series is for the younger generation. That makes sense since it’s about cadets working their way through the academy.
We’re not quite certain the time period of this series, but as Trekmovie mentioned in a recent post, this is the first time the academy has been reopened in over a century, and due to The Burn in Star Trek: Discovery, Starfleet has not had a proper academy in 125 years. That would fit with the series being set in the 32nd century. Whatever the time period, though, Newsome, in an interview with TrekMovie’s All Access Star Trek podcast, feels like the show will appeal to fans because they have some “real canon-heads” in the writers’ room having very intense conversations about keeping the Star Trek of the show “feeling really Star Trek-y.”
Starfleet Academy may be a teen show made for teens, but that won’t make it any less appealing to adult Star Trek fans.
Star Trek: Prodigy was created to appeal to a younger audience, and it has a legion of fans from all walks of life that helped saved the series once it was canceled. But one thing Prodigy does do is adhere to canon…at least so far.
That will make the difference with this new series. Veering too far off course will have a negative affect on diehard Trek fans who aren’t interested in anything but real Trek. If this series is set in the 32nd century, it will take a little getting used to for those Trekkies who haven’t watched Discovery. Hopefully, any new technology will be explained well enough so no one has to flip through a handbook to get up to speed.
Though the writing is well under way, the writers’ strike and the SAG-AFTRA strike did put the production behind. As of now, no one has been cast for the show yet so that long process as well as filming and post-production will most likely push the debut into 2025.