Star Trek: Strange New Worlds fans are mere hours away from the premiere of season 4. However, a fun, Muppet-esque piece of news just dropped, and here it is: the upcoming puppet episode will include more than simply Captain Christopher Pike’s transformation. In fact, Celia Rose Gooding went on record today at the New York premiere of SNW and declared that Carol Kane’s Pelia puppet is her personal favorite. Check out the video below!
Gooding, who portrays Nyota Uhura in the must-see streaming series, said during the Strange New Worlds Q&A panel following the season 4 premiere in The Big Apple, courtesy of 92NY’s YouTube channel: “It is easily my favorite puppet [Pelia] of all the puppets… when you get to see it […] To have our puppets made in Jim Henson’s Creature Shop is such a gift."
“It’s amazing,” Captain Pike himself, Anson Mount chimed in about Pelia's puppet. And Melissa Navia, who plays Lt. Erica Ortegas on Strange New Worlds — she flies the ship — quickly added to puppet persiflage by telling the audience: “I can’t wait for you guys to see all of the puppets but especially mine [laughter]. I was texting the hair department to make sure my puppet was getting final touches.”
Obviously, the Strange New Worlds actors weren’t actually voicing their characters during the filming of the season 4 puppet episode, all that work came later in ADR, but Mount told the audience that the puppeteer operating Pelia’s “Muppet” was doing a spot-on impression of the actress on the set.
Now, that I know Star Trek fans are getting multiple “Muppets,” I’m most excited to see Mr. Spock (Ethan Peck) and La’an Noonien Singh’s (Christina Chong) puppets interact. During the Strange New Worlds season 4 press tour, Peck has already revealed that the showrunners have him kissing a puppet, which I assume is La’an.
Which characters’ puppets are you most excited to see on screen? Share your choices with us on the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages. And Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 debuts at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT tonight (Thursday, July 23) on Paramount+.
Live long and prosper, Trekkies!
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