‘Starfleet Academy’ Beams Up Fresh Release Date, a New Trailer, and a Surprising Cast Member

The world of Star Trek is beaming up some incredibly important news at New York Comic Con. In addition to a sleek new trailer for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, the series will officially premiere on Paramount+ January 15. The trailer for the newest spin-off, also gives fans a glimpse at the bigger conflict before the bell rings for the newest crop of cadets. The trailer unveiled at San Diego Comic Con looked ahead to how Starfleet Academy is rebuilding, with Holly Hunter‘s Chancellor of Students. In the trailer at New York Comic Con, we see that her conflict with Paul Giamatti‘s character started long before the events of the series. As the cadets go through their training, both the mundane and the tactical, Hunter’s character is also anxiously searching for Tatiana Maslany‘s character, as a promise to her son.

The cast is full of names both new and old to the franchise. In the trailer, fans got to see Robert Picardo‘s Doctor, that they first met in Star Trek: Voyager as an Emergency Medical Hologram. Tig Notaro, Oded Fehr and Mary Wiseman reprise their Star Trek: Discovery roles. Sandro Rosta, Karim Diané Kerrice Brooks, George Hawkins and Bella Shepard, plus Zoë Steiner make up our new cadets. Gina Yashere also guest stars.

A Familiar CBS Voice is ‘Starfleet Academy’s Digital Dean of Students

In addition to the trailer, fans got treated to a special announcement from late night talk show host Stephen Colbert. In it, Colbert that he will be the voice of Starfleet Academy’s Digital Dean of Students, who will be giving daily announcements to the students and alerting them of anything that needs their immediate attention. The role sounds akin to the computer alerts used in Star Trek, originally voiced by Majel Barrettwho Trek fans know was synonymous with the franchise.

As fans get acquainted with the 32nd Century setting, showrunner Alex Kurtzman has previously told Collider that the show will be “relevant” to the youth of today. Kurtzman says:

“Our kids are the first class back in over 120 years. So, you have a generation of kids who are facing the mistakes of their elders, or the issues that have been handed down to them by their elders, and are now having to deal with it. It felt like a very relevant topic. As a father, I see what my son is going through as he’s about to go off into the world, and it feels very much like what our cadets are going through.”

Starfleet Academy premieres January 15. Check out the new trailer and images below and Colbert’s announcement above. Stay with Collider for the latest updates.