Strange New Worlds Will Officially Show Everyone What Captain Kirk's Star Trek Spinoff Will Look Like

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 will show everyone, including Paramount+, what its proposed Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) spinoff, Star Trek: Year One, will look like. Strange New Worlds was one half of Paramount+'s San Diego Comic-Con Star Trek 60th anniversary Hall H panel, where a new sizzle reel for season 4 was revealed.

Arguably the best of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's trailers, some of the footage from the Comic-Con teaser appears to be from Strange New Worlds season 4's finale, "Tomorrow's Enterprise," where Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) somehow becomes or switches places with her future self, Lieutenant Uhura, from Star Trek: The Original Series.

The final shock in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's Comic-Con teaser, however, is the last bit of footage, where Lieutenant Uhura and Scotty (Martin Quinn) bring a shuttlecraft flight plan to the Captain of the Enterprise, who turns and reveals himself as James T. Kirk. "Thank you, Mr. Scott," Captain Kirk replies as he accepts the PADD with a smile.

Strange New Worlds Season 4 Will Show Paramount What Captain Kirk’s Star Trek: Year One Spinoff Will Look Like

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Comic-Con teaser made a promise that the series will fulfill: Captain Kirk and the USS Enterprise from Star Trek: The Original Series (more accurately, Strange New Worlds' version of them) will appear in season 4. This glimpse into the future Strange New Worlds is building towards is effectively a proof of concept of the proposed spinoff, Star Trek: Year One, to fans and to Paramount+.

During press for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, executive producers and co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers began speaking publicly about their hopes for Star Trek: Year One to pick up where Strange New Worlds leaves off. Their idea is to tell new stories about James T. Kirk's first year as Captain of the Enterprise.

Theoretically, Paul Wesley would lead Star Trek: Year One as Captain Kirk, with Ethan Peck's Mr. Spock, Martin Quinn's Scotty, Celia Rose Gooding's Uhura, and Jess Bush's Nurse Christine Chapel aboard. They would be joined by Kai Murakami as Hikaru Sulu and Thomas Jane as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, both of whom will debut in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' series finale.

However, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 will essentially preview Star Trek: Year One in "Tomorrow's Enterprise," which makes the title even more fitting. It's even possible that "Tomorrow's Enterprise" could show Bones and Sulu early, and that their announcement for the season 5 finale was a decoy to protect the potential surprise of seeing them in season 4.

Can Strange New Worlds Season 4 Make Star Trek: Year One Happen?

Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers confirmed to ScreenRant that there are no plans at Paramount+ to make Star Trek: Year One, but they "stand at the ready" if they get a call with a green light. However, Goldsman and Myers were thinking ahead and are, perhaps, stacking the odds in Star Trek: Year One's favor by showing what it would look like in Strange New Worlds season 4.

With every Star Trek series at Paramount+ canceled and no new shows in development, it seems that the streamer intends for Star Trek to take a hiatus. And yet, plans could change, as Goldsman and Myers are hoping. Audience clamor for Star Trek: Year One, if "Tomorrow's Enterprise" is rapturously received, may well be difficult for Paramount+ to ignore.

After all, the outpouring of love for Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike in Star Trek: Discovery season 2 is what led to the creation of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. However, three years of dedicated letter writing and campaigning has not budged Paramount+ into making Star Trek: Legacy, Star Trek: Picard season 3's proposed spinoff.

Making the prospect of Star Trek: Year One more difficult is that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' USS Enterprise sets in Toronto have been torn down, with pieces auctioned off. Goldsman and Myers likely hoped to slide into shooting Star Trek: Year One on the same sets, redressed for the new Captain, and with mostly the same cast and crew in front of and behind the camera.

Star Trek: Year One is also up against many fans' opinion that the Captain Kirk show already happened 60 years ago when it was called, simply, Star Trek, and starred William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy (and they are right). There is certainly merit in the audience's desire for Star Trek to stop making prequels in already well-trodden eras, and instead, introduce a new ship, a new crew, and tell all-new stories.

Still, Star Trek is in the optimism business. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is undeniably popular, impeccably cast with actors who gel wonderfully together, and it's a shame that they are only getting five seasons and 46 total episodes. The audience will decide how much they want Star Trek: Year One when they see Captain Kirk in action in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4, and so will Paramount+.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's new episodes premiere every Thursday on Paramount+.