Star Trek Discovery has been one of the main flagship new entries into the long-running science-fiction franchise.
Being released in the shadow of J.J. Abram’s new trilogy of Star Trek movies, Star Trek Discovery, represents the newest installment in the original Star Trek timeline, away from the new continuity that the movies have established.
The show has gone on to become a staple of the franchise, with it sitting comfortably alongside the many iconic series that have come before it.
However, as season four has wrapped up and season 5 is on the horizon for us in 2023, many fans and media commentators are starting to wonder what the future holds for this show that has boldly expanded the Star Trek franchise into the modern-day.
Will it continue to run past its fifth season? Or are there no plans for the series to be carried on once the finale of season 5 wraps up?
These are just some of the things plaguing fans of the show’s minds, so it would be nice to try and settle these fears. Fears that we hope to quell and answer in this article!
In this guide, we are going to outline what Star Trek Discovery is about, some of the production histories behind it, as well as what the future of the show might look like past its fifth season.
Star Trek: Discovery
Before we answer the main question of the article, it may be helpful if we first give a little extra context to the show itself, both the premise and plot, as well as the behind-the-scenes work that had to go into making it in the first place.
The first two seasons of the show take place approximately 10 years before the beginning of the Original Series of Star Trek, during the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets, which is considered one of the most important conflicts to take place in recent history, within the world of Star Trek.
The main character of the series, former commander Michael Burnham, is partially responsible for starting the war in the first place.
After being court-martialed and demoted, she has since been reassigned to the USS Discovery, an experimental ship design that uses a type of propulsion.
The series tackles a different antagonist during every season.
In the first season, the main conflicts are both the Federation-Klingon war, as well as the adventures that take place in the Mirror Universe.
In the second season, the main conflict that the crew of the Discovery has to combat is the entity that is known as the ‘red angel’.
During the third season, after being stranded some 900 years in their future, the crew of the Discovery has to try and understand what has happened to the federation, which has since fragmented in this distant future, as well as try and understand what happened during the event known as the ‘burn’, which resulted in the ruined future that the Discovery has found itself in.
Coming out of the fourth season, the crew has spent much of the season trying to rebuild the federation, as well as combatting a new anomaly that has appeared in the Alpha quadrant, the part of the Milky Way galaxy that the Star Trek series primarily takes place in.
The Creation Of A New Star Trek Series
So, with the premise of Star Trek Discovery and each of its series explained, we can now start to explore what the story behind the new series being made was, as that will tell us what we can expect from the series in the future.
Following the success of the J. J. Abram movies, CBS showed interest in creating a new Star Trek series for television.
Given that the last Star Trek series, Star Trek: Enterprise, aired its last episode in 2005, it had been a few years since there had been a new Star Trek series for television.
The series was first announced back in 2015 by CBS that a new Star Trek series was currently being developed, and that was intended to premiere on the 50th anniversary of the original series debut, in 2016.
However, the show spent a lot of time in pre-production on several issues, including where exactly the show was going to be aired and broadcasted, with the show originally intended for CBS’s streaming service, Paramount+, then known as ‘All Access’.
However, the first few seasons of the show would be aired on Netflix in 2017, which implies that the prediction of the series was originally somewhat shaky.
There was also reportedly a 5-year plan for the series when it was first aired, which would have taken it from 2017, right up to the fall of this year, 2022.
Seeing as the fourth season has since finished airing in March, at the beginning of the year, outside of the next season being announced it seems like the future is still a little uncertain.
Will There Be Another Season After Season 5?
So, with all that information out of the way, does it look like the series is going to be canceled after season 5?
Well, currently it is hard to say.
Given that we have reached the end of the original 5-year plan period, it would suggest that the show is reaching some kind of conclusion.
However, given that the fifth season is likely to air at some point next year, it is clear that there are at least some plans beyond it.
Given how long some previous series have run for, upwards of seven seasons, and for just as many years, there is certainly precedent for an even longer airing time
Final Thoughts
To summarize, while it isn’t clear for how long it may run, it doesn’t look like Star Trek: Discovery shows any sign of slowing down just yet, with its continued audience engagement and critical acclaim.
