Breaking News: Star Trek: Lower Decks canceled at Paramount+
By Chad Porto
It's official, Star Trek: Lower Decks has been canceled by Paramount+, with the upcoming fifth season of the show to bring the series to a close. The show has had 40 episodes air by this point and will have another 10 close out the series's run. The announcement came from the Twitter/X Sar Trek on Paramount+ account where the show was announced as coming to a close this season.
This falls in line with Star Trek: Discovery being canceled between seasons as well, with Discovery getting canceled just after filming for season five being filmed. Paramount allowed them to come back to film a conclusion to the show, allowing Discovery to have a finale that is more fitting for the show. The crew and cast of Discovery did not know that season five would be their last season until the announcement became official.
The same seems to be the case for Lower Decks, as production on season five resumed in November of 2023, and according to ScreenRant, the production crew was putting the final touches on the show for its fifth and now final season.
It's important to note that this wasn't the plan early on. Both Lower Decks and Discovery had ideas and plans for a sixth season, but budget cuts at Paramount+ likely brought a close to both shows. This should help clear things up for those who are going to start talking about the fifth season being the new standard for closing a show, as Voyager, Deep Space Nine, and The Next Generation ended after seven.
We've seen Picard canceled after three seasons, Prodigy getting axed after one, Short Treks getting just two and now Discovery and Lower Decks getting just five. The focus for Star Trek is becoming clear, they want shows that speak to a larger fandom as every show that has been canceled, save or maybe Prodigy, were niche shows that catered to small pockets of fans.
The franchise appears to be going more in the route of less expensive, shorter films that they can produce quickly and turn around even quicker on streaming services.
It's not all doom and gloom, however, as Strange New Worlds got announced for a fourth season despite still working on the third season.