Star Trek: Lower Decksis about to embark on the last leg of its five-year mission. But even though the upcoming seasonis to be its last, it will leave the door open to a continuation - and maybe more.TrekMovie.comreports that showrunnerMike McMahanhas seeded the final season with characters he’d like to spin off.
McMahan had a conversation about the show’sfinal seasonwithThe ‘Versepodcast, in which he discussed wanting to do more of the series, but bringing it to a satisfying conclusion. But there may be some more hope for the series’ combination ofStar Trekcontinuity references and off-the-wall humor in some future spinoffs. Says McMahan of the new season, “There are things that happen in it…I’m being very careful…that are sort of setting up spinoffs and setting up backdoor pilots. There’s characters I’m introducing that you’ll see clearly I wanted to do more with.” Of course, McMahan isn’t necessarily done with the crew of theUSS Cerritos, either: “I would always be into doing more seasons, movies, comics, novels…”
What Other Shows Has ‘Star Trek’ Spun Off?
Star Trek’s first attempted spinoff dates back toThe Original Series. The 1968 episode “Assignment: Earth” was intended to spin off Gary Seven (Robert Lansing), a mysterious secret agent operating on modern-day Earth. The spinoff didn’t happen, and Gary Seven was never seen again, but the character was referenced in the second season ofStar Trek: Picard. Subsequent Trek series, likeDeep Space NineandVoyager, could be considered spinoffs, but did not initially feature any characters or scenarios introduced in episodes of their “parent” show,The Next Generation.Strange New Worlds, whose third season is now in production, is a textbook example of a spinoff; CaptainChristopher Pike(Anson Mount), crewmembers Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) and Spock (Ethan Peck) and their ship, theUSS Enterprise, were introduced in their modern form in the second season ofStar Trek: Discovery, and proved so popular that they were spun off into their own series. AnotherDiscoveryspinoff,Starfleet Academy, is set to film this summer, after the titular institution was reintroduced in the series' third season; we do not yet know if anyDiscoverycharacters will be joining that show’s cast.
Star Trek: Lower Decksfollows the crew of theCerritos, a Starfleet ship that is typically assigned to less glamorous missions than the ones you see on otherStar Trekshows. Despite that, however, they still get into their share of adventures. The series premiered in 2020, and has been ahit with criticsand audiences.
Watch on Paramount+
Star Trek: Lower Decks' fifth and final season isexpected to premiere on Paramount+ later this year. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
Star Trek: Lower Decks
Behind every great captain, is a crew keeping the ship from falling to pieces. These are the hilarious stories of the U.S.S. Cerritos.
