Star Trek: Strange New Worlds could save Captain Pike without breaking canon

Anson Mount's Captain Christopher Pike has carved out a place in Star Trek history that didn't really exist beforehand. Yes, we knew Captain Pike from the two-part episode, The Menagerie, from Star Trek: The Original Series, but we knew very little about him. He suffered a horrific injury which left him confined to a wheelchair, unable to speak. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) helps him get back to Talos IV where he could live a fantasy life where he was not in a debilitating condition. But we know nothing about what happened to the captain after the Enterprise left him behind. We just assumed he continued his fantasy life, but that doesn't have to be the case.

Screenrant's Rachel Hulshult expressed hope that Capain Pike could avoid his fate, even if it meant breaking Star Trek canon, and there are many other fans that feel the same way, especially knowing Pike now. And The Original Series has actually left an opening that will allow Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to give Pike a different life.

We already know that Pike can't interfere with the events destined to happen as he was warned about what could happen if he attempted to do so. And that warning offered him a glimpse of the Federation involved in a war with the Romulans and an injured Spock who might not survive. So avoiding the accident in which Pike saves the cadets isn't a possibilty, but picking up where The Original Series left off is.

Knowing Captain Pike's crew, they would stop at nothing to figure out a way to save their captain. So who's to say they don't, maybe along with some outside help, come up with a solution that they can take back to Talos IV? Just because Pike is sent to the planet to live out the rest of his days doesn't mean he has to stay there. And that's how Strange New Worlds could alter his future.

Captain Pike doesn't see that he lives on Talos IV for the rest of his life, and neither did we. So he could be healed and brought back into Starfleet. It would certainly be no different than bringing Spock back from the dead and Admiral Kirk back from the Nexus he was trapped in. While this is something that can be considered for the end of Strange New Worlds, it would be incredible if Captain Pike could see that his future life isn't set in stone after all.