During Paramount+'s massive Star Trek panel in San Diego Comic-Con's enormous Hall H, it was revealed that the cast of the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks will be colliding with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in a major crossover event. Anson Mount revealed the news after Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid crashed the panel, sharing that Ensign Beckett Mariner (Newsome) and Ensign Brad Boimler (Quaid) would be appearing in Season 2 of Strange New Worlds—and not in animated form!
And the excitement doesn't end there! The epic crossover episode will be directed by Star Trek: The Next Generations' own Jonathan Frakes, who has directed a number of episodes of the franchise across the series, including Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and most recently Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard. While Qauid and Newsome will be appearing in live-action as their characters, it sounds like they will also be appearing in animated form during the episode... which really gets the theories churning about what will happen to the crew of the Enterprise.
Strange New Worlds just wrapped up its first season, which is based on the years that Christopher Pike (Mount) helmed the U.S.S. Enterprise. The Season 1 finale of Strange New Worlds saw Pike discovering that his tragic fate is, essentially, a fixed point in time and that, should he try to change the course of his destiny, it will lead to Spock's (Ethan Peck) demise and certain devastation across the galaxy. The finale also saw the introduction of James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) whose own destiny would be inevitably changed if Pike attempted to change his future. When we chatted with Wesley after the finale, he teased that we would definitely be seeing more of him in Season 2 and the teaser confirmed that piece of information. Once Pike returned back to his own timeline, he was met with a different kind of tragedy as Number One (Rebecca Romijn) was taken into custody by Starfleet for being an Illyrian.
While there is definitely room for surprises when these two series collide together in Season 2 of Strange New Worlds, one can't help but wonder if Romijn might get the chance to act opposite her real-life husband Jerry O'Connell in the episode, considering he voices Jack Ransom.
No release date has been set for the return of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, but they did wrap earlier this month on the upcoming season. In the meantime, check out the new trailer for Star Trek: Lower Decks below: