Star Trek In 2027 Will Get Its Biggest Boost In A Decade Thanks To Skydance (No, Really)

Published Nov 10, 2026, 9:30 AM EST John Orquiola is a TV Editor, Senior Writer, and Interviewer with a special focus on Star Trek. John has over 5,000 published articles at SR, and he has interviewed the biggest names in Star Trek on the red carpet and VIP events, among other beloved shows, movies, and franchises. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Skydance merging Paramount+ and HBO Max will be good news for existing Star Trek content and potentially gives Gene Roddenberry's 60-year-old franchise its biggest boost in the decade since Star Trek: Discovery premiered. Now, it's understandable if Trekkers are skeptical. Read any room Star Trek fans occupy, and there's a general uneasiness, at the least, about Star Trek's future under Skydance. After all, it was the looming purchase of Paramount Global by Skydance back in 2023 that sparked the gradual cancellation of every Star Trek TV series on Paramount+ executive produced by Alex Kurtzman. While other factors contributed as well to Star Trek's diminishment, such as the cost of Kurtzman's Star Trek shows relative to their streaming numbers, Star Trek's new owners and their still undefined new direction for the venerable franchise led to the slate being wiped clean of original Star Trek shows on Paramount+. In the eyes of fans, Star Trek is "going away" or is "over" after 2027, when Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiere their final seasons, with no new Star Trek in production. The doomsaying also has to do with fans' distrust of Skydance CEO David Ellison's right-leaning politics, which Trekkers fear will overrule the progressive vision Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek is built upon. Whatever happens to Star Trek in terms of creative after 2027, something good will come out of Skydance's plans for HBO Max and Paramount+. Paramount+ Merging With HBO Max Means Greater Access To Existing Star Trek Content Skydance will bundle Paramount+ and HBO Max in early 2027, offering consumers both streamers for one price. Ellison called the bundle “our first step towards unifying the two services," in a conference call to Wall Street. Combining HBO Max and Paramount+ will take time, Ellison admits, but the ultimate goal is for one streaming service to host franchises like Game of Thrones, DC, Harry Potter, Landman, Dutton Ranch... and Star Trek. Paramount+'s 79 million subscribers is dwarfed by HBO Max's 140 million, but merging the two streamers, first in a bundle before they are one service, opens the door to double the audience potentially seeing Star Trek. Since 2017, all Star Trek content has been behind Paramount+'s paywall, meaning legacy shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation and the newer Paramount+ series like Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (but not Star Trek: Prodigy). HBO Max exposes Star Trek to more eyeballs than Paramount+'s subscribers. Star Trek's greatest heights in terms of viewership and pop culture relevance were in the 1990s, when audiences could visit the final frontier on free TV in syndication or on UPN. For well over the last decade, Star Trek has been trapped behind streaming paywalls, although Pluto TV offers classic Star Trek series and occasional episodes of Paramount+'s Star Trek shows to stream for free. With Paramount+ and HBO Max bundled en route to full integration, Star Trek has a chance to grow its audience in ways it couldn't before. New and classic Star Trek series being offered alongside HBO's most prestigious series like The Pitt, House of the Dragon, and The White Lotus also raises the franchise's profile. Despite the high quality of Alex Kurtzman's series in terms of production values and visual effects, and casting Oscar-caliber A-list stars like Holly Hunter, Paul Giamatti, and Michelle Yeoh, Star Trek is still seen as a niche sci-fi franchise that has trouble enticing general audiences. Simply making Star Trek available to HBO Max's audience makes it easier and more enticing to sample the final frontier and fall in love with Star Trek's rich universe of unforgettable characters and thought-provoking stories. Being exposed to HBO Max's viewers is potentially the biggest boost existing Star Trek will get to create new fans. What Paramount+ & HBO Max Combining Means For Star Trek’s Future Skydance considers Star Trek a crown jewel IP, although the studio's top focus seems to be relaunching the Star Trek movie franchise before creating more TV shows. It's also likely that a new executive producer will replace Alex Kurtzman to oversee Star Trek in line with Skydance's vision for the franchise. How fans will feel about Skydance's Star Trek remains to be seen. Still, many are bracing for the worst. When HBO Max and Paramount+ combine, every Star Trek TV series and movie will be available to over 200+ million subscribers. However, whatever Skydance does next with Star Trek, it does not delete the 60 years of TV shows and movies that already exist. Those dozen TV series, consisting of over a thousand episodes, and 14 Star Trek feature films will always be there. The trouble was that their audience was relatively limited on Paramount+. When HBO Max and Paramount+ combine, every Star Trek TV series and movie will be available to over 200 million subscribers. Looking Star Trek pre- and post-Skydance, even if audiences reject the next iteration of the final frontier, the greater availability of 1966-2027 Star Trek will allow viewers to flock to the old shows and movies as part of their subscription to whatever the combined HBO Max and Paramount+ streamer will be called. Paramount+ and HBO Max merging is beneficial to the Star Trek TV shows and movies fans already know and love. If the audience for Star Trek can grow with Skydance's bundle becoming a unified streaming service, more people discovering Captain Kirk, Captain Picard, Mr. Spock, Captain Pike, Data, Saru, and Captain Burnham is a good thing. Star Trek TV series and feature films (except Star Trek: Prodigy) are streaming on Paramount+ TV Show(s) Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Short Treks, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Video Game(s) Star Trek Online, Star Trek: Resurgence, Star Trek: Bridge Crew First Film Star Trek: The Motion Picture First TV Show Star Trek: The Original Series Cast William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Deforest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Wil Wheaton, Avery Brooks, Nana Visitor, Rene Auberjonois, Alexander Siddig, Cirroc Lofton, Armin Shimerman, Colm Meaney, Terry Farrell, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Jeri Ryan, Robert Duncan McNeill, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Garrett Wang, Jolene Blalock, Connor Trinneer, Dominic Keating, Scott Bakula, Linda Park, John Billingsley, Anthony Montgomery, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho, Chris Hemsworth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sonequa Martin-Green, Mary Wiseman, Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Wilson Cruz, Oyin Oladejo, Emily Coutts, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn, Michelle Yeoh Created by Gene Roddenberry