‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Star Officially Confirms New Bones and Sulu Just "Clicked" in Season 5 [Exclusive]

Image via Paramount+ / CBS Studios Published Sep 24, 2026, 12:30 PM EDT Sam is a News Editor for Collider and a known lover of all things sci-fi and horror. She spends her days editing news stories, coodrinating exclusives, and working closely with writers to deliver their best work. When she's not editing the daily news, she can be found hanging out with her wife (they're probably rewatching Ghosts for the millionth time), tweeting about romance, and cooking something delicious while belting to Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter's latest hits at the top of her lungs. Sign in to your Collider account The Season 4 finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds gave us a glimpse of the future as two versions of the USS Enterprise crossed paths on either side of a black hole. Just one year from the current timeline, the Enterprise will officially be in the hands of Captain Kirk (Paul Wesley). While some of his crew will look very familiar with the likes of Uhura (Celia Gooding), Scotty (Martin Quinn), and Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), Kirk’s Enterprise will introduce a few more characters we haven’t seen since The Original Series. I recently sat down with Paul Wesley to discuss the final episodes of Strange New Worlds Season 4, and during our discussion about the finale, I asked what the early days of Kirk’s Enterprise might look like to him. He explained that these episodes — and the ones that await in Season 5, are giving him the tools to become the Kirk we know and love. He told Collider: "First of all, I think all of these episodes with Reger, whatever, all these things that he's experienced are giving him the tools to understand who he wants to be as a captain. And I think for me, when I took this role, one of my goals was to create an arc and an evolution from this guy who's not necessarily sure of himself, doesn't really understand who he is as a captain, to eventually becoming someone who understands who he is. I think all of these things — figuring out who his father is, understanding his relationship with his son, falling in love — all of these things allow him to better understand himself for better and for worse. In some ways, he's scarred. In some ways he's grown. I think all of those things hopefully culminate in this final season, in the finale, in seeing this guy that is oddly familiar to us." As we head into the final season — which is expected to bring the prequel series full circle and drop audiences off at the beginning of The Original Series — fans can also expect to meet a few more members of Kirk’s crew before the show ends. Late last year, it was revealed that Thomas Jane and Kai Murakami had been cast in the series as Bones and Sulu​​​​​​, respectively. Speaking about what made these two actors the right people to round out Kirk’s beloved crew, Wesley said: “The only thing I can say is that I know that some of the magic of TOS, The Original Series, was the chemistry that all those characters had with one another — all those actors had with one another, I should say — and I will say that when we were shooting, I felt that. I felt this kind of like, “Oh, this is working. He feels like Bones,” and “Oh, he feels like Sulu.” It just kind of clicked. We all kind of clicked in terms of just our chemistry on screen, and so I'm very excited for people to see it because I do think it has a similar kind of magical quality to it that is not necessarily explainable.” Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one. 🏜️Paul Atreides 🖖Capt. Kirk ✊Princess Leia 🔦Ellen Ripley 🔥Max Rockatansky FIND YOUR HERO → 01 How do you lead when the stakes couldn't be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you. AI absorb everything — every variable, every pattern — and move only when I know the path forward. BI read the room, make the call, and own the consequences. Hesitation costs more than mistakes. CI rally people. A cause needs a voice, and I refuse to let fear be louder than conviction. DI assess the threat, establish what needs doing, and get it done without waiting for permission. EI don't lead. I act. Others can follow or not — I'm already moving. NEXT QUESTION → 02 What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails. APrescience — the ability to see further ahead than anyone else and plan accordingly. BImprovisation — I'm at my best when the plan falls apart and I have to invent a new one. CConviction — I know what I'm fighting for, and that certainty doesn't waver under fire. DComposure — I stay functional when everyone around me is falling apart. Panic is a luxury. EEndurance — I outlast things. I take the hit and keep moving long after others have stopped. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What is the thing you'd sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass. AThe survival and dignity of my people — even if I have to become something frightening to ensure it. BThe safety of my crew — every single one of them. No one gets left behind. CFreedom — for my people, for every world still crushed under the weight of an empire. DThe truth — what actually happened, what's actually out there, whether anyone believes me or not. EThe one person — or the one memory — that still makes any of this worth surviving for. NEXT QUESTION → 04 How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are. AWith intensity and distance — I care deeply, but the weight I carry makes closeness complicated. BWith warmth and irreverence — I take the mission seriously, not myself. CWith directness and trust — I say what I mean, and I expect the people I work with to rise to it. DWith professional care but clear limits — I'll protect you, but I won't pretend we're family. EWith wariness that slowly becomes loyalty — I don't trust easily, but when I do, it holds. NEXT QUESTION → 05 You're facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you're the only one who sees it defines everything. APrepare in silence. If they won't listen, I'll be ready when they finally have to. BKeep pushing until someone listens — and if no one does, handle it myself. CBuild the case, find the allies, and make the threat impossible to ignore. DDocument everything. The truth matters even if no one believes it yet. EStop trying to convince anyone. Survive it. That's the only argument that counts. NEXT QUESTION → 06 What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they'd pay it again. AMy innocence — I've seen what I'm capable of, and I can't unsee it. BPeople I loved — the command chair has a view, but it's a lonely one. CA normal life — I gave up everything ordinary the moment I chose the cause. DMy sense of safety — I know exactly what's out there now, and I can't pretend otherwise. EAlmost everything — and I'm still not sure what I'm carrying it all for. But I keep going. NEXT QUESTION → 07 How do you feel about the rules of the world you're in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What's yours? AI understand them deeply — and I know exactly which ones must be broken, and why. BI respect the spirit of them and bend the letter when the situation demands it. CThe system is the problem. I'm not here to work within it — I'm here to dismantle it. DI follow protocol until protocol stops being useful. Then I make the call myself. EThe rules collapsed a long time ago. What's left is instinct, and mine are reliable. NEXT QUESTION → 08 When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you. ADestiny — or something that feels so much like it that the difference no longer matters. BThe people on my ship — their faces, their trust, the fact that they're counting on me. CThe belief that what we're fighting for is worth every sacrifice, including this one. DSheer refusal to let it win — whatever it is. I don't stop. That's just who I am. EI'm not sure anymore. But the road is still there, and I'm still on it. REVEAL MY HERO → Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible. Paul AtreidesYou carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you're capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become. You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you. You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn't ask for but can't escape. Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway. That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won't, is exactly you. Captain KirkYou lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you've always believed there's a third option nobody else has thought of yet. You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously. Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you've earned it. Kirk's genius isn't tactical — it's human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction. That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours. Princess LeiaYou are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you're fearless, but because giving up simply isn't something you're capable of. You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable. You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you've never looked back. Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion. That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you. Ellen RipleyYou are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone's hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters. You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself. Ripley's heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn't have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan. You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn't there. When it counts, you don't flinch. That's everything. Max RockatanskyYou have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril. You don't ask for help, don't need validation, and don't wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply. Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it's earned in silence and tested in action, not in words. Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting. That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Is Abandoning Its Winning Formula for Season 5 With a shortened final season of only six episodes, Strange New Worlds is officially putting one of its best features aside to make sure it lands the ship, so to speak, for the characters. When asked if there would still be big genre swings, Wesley told Collider, “I will say it's a little bit not as much, because this is a show that is a huge ensemble and every character has to conclude their character arc.” Akiva Goldsman, speaking to Collider in another interview, also confirmed there would essentially be “no genre hopping” in Season 5. But as Wesley explains, Goldsman and co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers will be using these final episodes to make sure these characters get a fitting send-off​​​​​​. “Because there are only six [episodes], there's less flexibility to have those kinds of fantastical episodes, said Wesley. “It's going to be more just like a conclusion to these wonderful characters that we all have been thankfully blessed with, because a lot of shows end and you don't get to conclude things.” Within these final episodes, Wesley is particularly proud of the work he’s done with Ethan Peck to fill out the early years of Kirk and Spock’s relationship, a relationship that Wesley rightfully calls the most important in the franchise. Telling Collider what he’s most pleased with from his work on the series, Wesley said: “It’s so hard to put that into words because there have been so many moments. But I will say, my friendship with Ethan [Peck] is very important, my friendship with Christie, and I think some of that shows onscreen. Some of the stuff that Spock and I do in the finale, frankly, the series finale, is really special because the Spock-Kirk relationship is arguably the most important relationship of the entire story, from all the Star Treks. I guess I'm a little partial to that, but I am proud of what we accomplished together on screen throughout this series." Wesley couldn’t end the conversation without giving Anson Mount his flowers for his work as Captain Pike. When asked about a time in these episodes where one of his castmates blew him away with their performance, Wesley was quick to praise the whole ensemble, saying, “It happens often. They're all so talented, so it happens often. I've seen all of them do special things, very, very special things.” But much like Kirk himself, Wesley was particularly impressed with everything Mount brought to Star Trek’s original Captain. “I'm always amazed at Anson [Mount]'s ability to portray such a… I actually look at Anson, and I go, “Oh, wow, he's a captain.” And I think in many ways, Kirk, as a lieutenant who's around Pike all the time, takes a lot of Pike's gravitas and his ability to lead and learn from that,” Wesley explained. “So, certainly me as an actor, I was able to look at Anson's performance and go, “Oh, I want to do that. That's how I want Kirk to be one day.” The Season 4 finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is now streaming on Paramount+. Season 5 is expected to air sometime next year. Stay tuned at Collider for more. Release Date 2022 - 2027-00-00 Network Paramount+ Showrunner Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman Directors Dan Liu, Amanda Row, Maja Vrvilo, Akiva Goldsman, Dermott Downs, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Jonathan Frakes, Jordan Canning, Leslie Hope, Valerie Weiss, Sydney Freeland, Christopher J. Byrne, Rachel Leiterman Writers Onitra Johnson Franchise(s) Star Trek Creator(s) Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet