Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will make contact with the Star Trek: Lower Decks crew next season.
As revealed during the show’s panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, Season 2 of the Paramount+ series will include a crossover episode featuring both live-action and animation, as Lower Decks‘ Ensign Beckett Mariner (voiced by Tawny Newsome) and Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) drop by the U.S.S. Enterprise.
Strange New Worlds follows Captain Pike (Anson Mount), Spock (Ethan Peck) and Una (Rebecca Romijn) as they explore new worlds around the galaxy. Season 1 ended on a cliffhanger with Una being arrested on the bridge by Federation officials for concealing her identity as an Illyrian. (TVLine already confirmed that Rebecca Romijn will be back as a series regular for Season 2.)
Plus, Vampire Diaries alum Paul Wesley is headed to the show next season as James T. Kirk. Kirk appeared in the finale during an alternate reality in which he served as the captain of the U.S.S. Farragut and Pike was never horrifically injured in a training accident. Wesley previously told TVLine that the Kirk we’ll meet in Season 2 is very different from the one introduced in Season 1.
“In the Season 1 finale, it’s a very plot-driven episode [and] we don’t really get to explore Kirk in the same way that we do in Season 2,” he said. “It’s a younger Kirk. It’s a Kirk pre-Enterprise, and so we get to really have fun [next season].”
How do you feel about this upcoming Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks crossover? Sound off in the comments.