Starfleet Academy Season 2 Adds Bill Nighy, Sets March 2027

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Bill Nighy and Rosemarie DeWitt are joining Star Trek: Starfleet Academy for its second season. The casting was announced at Paramount+'s Star Trek panel at New York Comic Con on Saturday, October 10, 2026, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter report. The panel also confirmed that season two will premiere on Paramount+ in March 2027. An exact date has not been set, and Variety notes it will be the show's final season. The new roles Nighy will play Nyk Ake, the estranged father of Nahla, Holly Hunter's character. DeWitt will play Laytha Sadal, the First Lady of Betazed and mother of Tarima (Zoë Steiner). Both are guest roles, and first-look photos show Nighy alongside Robert Picardo's The Doctor and DeWitt with Steiner. What season two is about The official logline, quoted by Variety, says the season "follows our cadets into their second year aboard the USS Athena." Their ideals of leadership, friendship, romance and morality are tested "as they navigate budding rivalries, shaky diplomatic negotiations, a fiercely competitive schoolwide tournament, and the arrival of a mysterious new cadet whose existence raises questions that could have consequences far beyond the classroom." The Hollywood Reporter says an exclusive clip from episode one showed the cadets' first away mission, interrupted by a new character, Keats (Ruaridh Aldington), whose crashed pod holds information they need. Key facts Series: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, season 2 (final season) Premiere: March 2027 on Paramount+ New guest stars: Bill Nighy as Nyk Ake; Rosemarie DeWitt as Laytha Sadal Announced: New York Comic Con, Saturday, October 10, 2026 Co-showrunners: Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau Panel cast: Holly Hunter, Sandro Rosta, Bella Shepard, Karim Diané and Robert Picardo Teases from the panel According to The Hollywood Reporter, Kurtzman called the season's Nova Squadron episode "basically Top Gun in space." "It's a long major chase in space, which is awesome," he said. Hunter revealed she will play both her character and her character's twin sister. Picardo said the season will see "the doctor become a daddy." "After 800 years of existence, his future existence is forever changed," he said. "Nothing will ever be the same for the character." The White House comment The panel opened with the showrunners acknowledging attention from deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, who had derided the series online. "When the White House tweets at you, it's weird," Kurtzman quipped. "They're our favorite fans," Landau replied, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Looking back Landau said she loved hearing from people who never thought they would be Star Trek fans until Starfleet Academy, and who then went back to Deep Space Nine, Voyager, The Original Series and The Next Generation. Hunter said the final season let the cast explore "so much more intimacy" across its 10 episodes. The same panel featured William Shatner in conversation with Ben Stiller, part of the franchise's 60th-anniversary celebrations. "Reinvent itself while also giving you something familiar" Kurtzman used the panel to reflect on the show's purpose. "Star Trek has typically been defined through a somewhat narrow perspective, in the sense that people would say to me you had to be of a certain generation to like it, and I hate that," he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "For me, it was really important to bring a younger generation to the mix." Asked how the franchise continues, he said it must keep "finding a way to reinvent itself while also giving you something familiar, and that's a hard thing to do, but I feel like we did do that." Picardo added that parenthood changes his character: "The doctor, his greatest strength, is also his greatest weakness." Being a parent, he said, "opens up all this emotional richness," but also gives the Doctor someone he is afraid of losing. Shatner, meanwhile, recalled how the original Star Trek pilot failed with NBC before the network funded a second one, which is when he was brought in to play the captain. What's next Paramount+ will confirm an exact premiere date for the March 2027 launch closer to the time. Find more TV news on Entzopedia, along with awards-season coverage like the 84th Golden Globes and the latest from film . Sources: Variety | The Hollywood Reporter