Star Trek: Strange New Worlds focuses on the years before James Kirk was captain of the Enterprise, with Anson Mount‘s Christopher Pike at the helm. Paul Wesley recurs as Kirk, now a first officer who occasionally crosses paths with the Enterprise crew. He has also played versions of Kirk in alternate timelines.
We now know that Strange New Worlds will end with its fifth season (the third is currently airing), and it’s impossible not to start wondering what that could mean for the future of Wesley’s character. After all, what about seeing Kirk in that captain’s chair on the Enterprise? There’s already talk — though no serious discussions, the executive producers have said — of a Year One series following that character. And so when TV Insider caught up with Paul Wesley, we had to ask about his interest in a Star Trek spinoff..
“It’s not up to me, but I have expressed my desire, probably all too often, to the showrunners and whomever else asks. I would love nothing more than to do a Kirk series along with our beloved characters in TOS and introduce the characters that we have yet to introduce in TOS, Chekov and Sulu, and, I mean, you name it. And I think it would be fantastic,” he said.
He then pointed to what executive producer Akiva Goldsman has said: “The end of Strange New Worlds and then the beginning, which is the first episode of TOS where we meet Kirk, which is “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” there’s a chunk of time in between there. So you have Kirk at the helm in episodes that we have yet to see.”
Having a Year One show would depend on, of course, more than just Wesley’s desire, and he noted that he couldn’t speak for the show runners and what they might have planned or whether Paramount would be interested. “But speaking as a little kid who wants to play in a series, I think there’s so much room to explore,” he added. “And I think you can go into the TOS sort of time. You can explore time between episodes, you can explore time before the first episode. There’s just so much story to be mined here, and I would love nothing more than to play in that series.”
Would you watch a Star Trek: Year One series? What would you want to see? Let us know in the comments section below.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Thursdays, Paramount+