There have been rumours for years, talk of US telly rights holders CBS TV Studios meeting with fans who have ideas for new iterations, but now there is some more official news. Producer Alex Kurtzman is overseeing a new Star Trek TV series{
Quite what the series will focus on is still hidden behind a cloaking device, but with Kurtzman involved, we can expect it to take place at some point in the alternate timeline born in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek and continued in 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness, though probably a different ship and crew (and maybe even era) from Kirk/Spock/McCoy, as the film cast wouldn’t be available to do more than cameo at best.
The next step will be finding a writer to take on the task of developing the new show for its intended home. While earlier speculation had it heading to somewhere like Netflix or cable channel AMC, CBS is actually planning to keep it in house, launching the show on its broadcast network for one episode before sealing the rest of the series away in CBS All Access, its digital subscription service. The hope is, of course, that it’ll prove a tempting title to help compete with the streaming gang. And despite the fact that the 50th anniversary of Trek is coming up next year, the channel is targeting a January 2017 launch date for the new series. What that means for audiences outside the US has yet to be announced, though we figure someone like Amazon or another service will pick up the rights elsewhere.
Kurtzman was one of the co-writers/producers of those first two Trek movies, and while he runs a production company with fellow current Trek veteran Roberto Orci, the pair has been working apart of late, and he’s guiding the new show via his solo business, Secret Hideout.
In terms of films, Star Trek Beyond, with which Kurtzman is not directly involved, warps into our cinemas on July 22 next year. The fourth, according to The Hollywood Reporter, could arrive in 2019.