Summary

• Star Trek: Starfleet Academy in set in Star Trek: Discovery's 32nd century will have the largest set Star Trek set ever.
• Starfleet Academy will also return to San Francisco after Discovery set the school in outer space.
• Alex Kurtzman and his team are exploring futuristic Star Trek designs.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is confirmed to take place in the 32nd century of Star Trek: Discovery and a new report reveals the next Star Trek series will be filmed on the largest set ever constructed for Star Trek. Announced in April 2023, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is a YA-aimed series executive-produced by Alex Kurtzman and co-showrunner Noga Landau. Starfleet Academy will be about young Starfleet hopefuls trying to attain their dreams while also learning of a grave threat to the United Federation of Planets.

future of the Star Trek franchise went behind the scenes of the preproduction for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, revealing the scope of the series' sets, including that Starfleet Academy will return to its original San Francisco setting after Star Trek: Discovery depicted the school in outer space. Read the details from Variety's article below:

In one of Kurtzman’s several production offices in Toronto, he and production designer Matthew Davies are scrutinizing a series of concept drawings for the newest “Star Trek” show, “Starfleet Academy.” A bit earlier, they showed me their plans for the series’ central academic atrium, a sprawling, two-story structure that will include a mess hall, amphitheater, trees, catwalks, multiple classrooms and a striking view of the Golden Gate Bridge in a single, contiguous space. To fit it all, they plan to use every inch of Pinewood Toronto’s 45,900 square foot soundstage, the largest in Canada.

But this is a “Star Trek” show, so there do need to be starships, and Kurtzman is discussing with Davies about how one of them should look. The issue is that “Starfleet Academy” is set in the 32nd century, an era so far into the future Kurtzman and his team need to invent much of its design language... “For me, this design is almost too Klingon,” Kurtzman says. “I want to see the outline and instinctively, on a blink, recognize it as a Federation ship.”

Starfleet Academy Will Be Accessible To New Viewers And Star Trek Fans

Everyone is welcome to Starfleet Academy

As revealed in Variety's Star Trek cover story, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will be accessible to the show's target audience of teens and tweens, who are not expected to be experts on Star Trek - "which puts them on the same footing as the students depicted in the show," as noted by Variety. Co-showrunner Noga Landau adds, “These are kids who’ve never had a red alert before. They never had to operate a transporter or be in a phaser fight.” In a way, Starfleet Academy has similar aims to Netflix's CGI animated Star Trek: Prodigy, which is designed to convert even younger audiences into Star Trek fans.

Tawny Newsome of Star Trek: Lower Decks is also one of the writers of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is targeting a late summer 2024 start of production, and they plan to film season 1's 10 episode order in Toronto for several months. Alex Kurtzman said at SXSW that with post-production and visual effects, Starfleet Academy may not premiere until 2026 on Paramount+. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is certainly going to be an ambitious undertaking, but the goal is to create the next generation of Star Trek fans.

Source: Variety