Starfleet Academy has its first starring name and it's a huge one

Star Trek is getting bigger and grander with its latest series, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. The series will take place after the events of Star Trek: Discovery and while we're not sure who from that show will be coming over to his new one, we do know who the leading name will be. It was announced by Variety that Starfleet Academy will in fact be led by Holly Hunter.

Hunter, an Academy Award Winner, will star as the "captain and chancellor" of the academy according to Variety. The show will feature the growth of cadets into Starfleet members and Hunter will serve as the biggest name on the cast and in the show.

It'll be interesting to see who else joins Hunter on this journey but considering how vaunted her career and how tight the budgets are likely to be going forward, don't expect too many other highly vaunted names joining up. After all, Hunter has been in such grand films as The Piano, The Firm, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Thirteen, The Incredibles franchise, Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and the hit cable show, Saving Grace.

Her pedigree goes without saying, and her arrival may mark the largest name to join a Star Trek television/streaming property since Scott Bakula and likely supersedes his arrival. While many Star Trek names became icons after their turn on the show, few have ever come in with such gravitas to start a Star Trek show.

Not even James Kirk or Jean-Luc Picard had the established legacy that Hunter had when they joined the show. While Bakula was a major get for Enterprise, Hunter supersedes even him. This is a huge get for the show and the brand as a whole, as Hunter has the ability to captivate the masses with her talents and as long as she's given a better writer's room than some of the other Nu Trek shows, it' likely Academy will succeed where other shows have fallen short.