Co-showrunner Alex Kurtzman’s comments about Starfleet Academy double as a mission statement for where Star Trek TV goes next, and his philosophy suggests the franchise is far from running out of warp core. Kurtzman flat-out teases that there is more coming, even if he refuses to spill details in his interview with SFX Magazine. Kurtzman said (via TrekMovie.com):
“There’s quite a few exciting things in the works right now, but I’m not going to say more than that!”
This suggests that Paramount+ views Star Trek less as a single flagship series and more as a portfolio where different tones and formats can coexist. Kurtzman's tease suggests that another legacy-era experiment, a character-focused limited series, or an animated project is in development.
Kurtzman’s clearest explanation of his creative playbook comes in his description of how each new show must justify itself. The co-showrunner said in the same interview:
“My philosophy has always been that each show needs to be its own unique color in the same rainbow. They all need to tell their own unique story. I don’t believe that it’s really possible to create a one-size-fits-all Star Trek show."
Kurtzman continued:
"We’ve discovered, for example, that there’s a whole audience of younger kids who’ve found Star Trek through Lower Decks, and that’s led them to the other shows and movies. The goal, over time, is you have to plan different shows for different people, with the assumption they’re all a gateway drug in some way! That’s a really nice thing, because it makes Trek a limitless story engine.” (Continued...)