Star Trek: Strange New Worlds reveals the rest of the Enterprise crew — finally

When Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuts, it will feature the first new crew of the Starship Enterprise in a very long time. Yes, Captain Pike, Spock, and Number One have all been around since 1964’s pilot episode “The Cage,” but what about the rest of the crew? Because Strange New Worlds takes place before Captain Kirk took over the Enterprise, other than Spock and Number One, we’re not exactly sure who was in the crew before the Kirk change-over.

Until now. Paramount+ has just announced an official production start for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, as well as five new cast members. But who are they playing? Let’s dig in.

Although we still don’t know when Strange New Worlds will debut on Paramount+, the cast officially announced the series is in production with a new video that shows the various members of the cast, all speaking parts of the famous original Star Trek voiceover narration.

In addition to Anson Mount (Captain Pike), Ethan Peck (Spock), and Rebecca Romijn (Number One) we’ve also been introduced to five new members of the cast: Babs Olusanmokun, Christina Chong, Celia Rose Gooding, Jess Bush, and Melissa Navia.

Now, the most notable thing about this new announcement is that Paramount+ is not revealing who the new cast members are playing. Here’s the cast list again, and their photos.

• Babs Olusanmokun
• Christina Chong
• Celia Rose Gooding
• Jess Bush
• Melissa Navia

One thing any Trek fan will notice right away is the fact that this cast is much more diverse than any version of the Enterprise crew we saw in the 1960s Trek. Yes, canon means that the bridge crew will still have three white leads (Pike, Spock, and Number One) but it appears that SNW is aware of that issue, and is balancing out the rest of the crew with at least as much representation as The Next Generation. With Sonequa Martin-Green’s Michael Burnham becoming the first Black Starfleet captain to lead a Trek series since Avery Brooks’ Sisko in Deep Space Nine, it is notable that Strange New Worlds will swing back to having a white-dude captain in the form of Captain Pike.

But again, Pike is canon, and as much as the haters wanna hate, Discovery Season 2 honored Pike’s canonical past and future more than anyone thought possible. What’s interesting about the new Strange New Worlds cast is that they are poised to correct a blemish on Star Trek’s origins. Back in the 1960s, casting Nichelle Nichols and George Takei in non-stereotypical roles was notably progressive and groundbreaking. And yet, Uhura and Takei — the only Black and Asian representatives aboard the Enterprise, respectively — were frequently relegated to supporting roles. In other words, because Strange New Worlds is headed back into this part of the Trek canon, it can do what the classic show never did: give the rest of the non-white crew members real stories and full character arcs.

With this new Strange New Worlds casting, the Trek franchise is doubling-down on inclusivity and representation, and in doing so, it might make the painfully whitebread era of Captain Pike a little more realistic.

Strange New Worlds is filming now.