Star Trek: Starfleet Academy found its chancellor last month, and now it has its villain. Oscar-nominee Paul Giamatti will menace the students and faculty of the new Star Trek series. The Holdovers star will have a recurring role as the first season’s main villain. Giamatti‘s character is a man with an ominous past who has a secret connection to one of Starfleet Academy’s new cadets.
Say, co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau:
“Sometimes you’re lucky enough to discover that one of the greatest actors alive is also a huge Star Trek fan, and meeting Paul was one of those miraculous moments for us. The sheer delight with which he dove in on Starfleet Academy is only surpassed by the gratitude we feel about him joining our incredible cast.”
Giamatti is no stranger to science fiction; he starred as a slave-trading orangutan in Tim Burton‘s Planet of the Apes remake, the super villain Rhino in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and a post-apocalyptic survivor in I Think We’re Alone Now.
What Do We Know About ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’?
So far, details on the latest star in Paramount+‘s galaxy of Star Trek series have been as top-secret as the Federation’s Section 31. It will be set at the titular San Francisco Starfleet Academy, which was first featured on-screen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It will be set in the distant future of the 32nd century, where the final three seasons of the recently concluded Star Trek: Discovery were set. It will take place in the wake of The Burn, a cataclysmic disaster that shattered the Federation; as the galaxy rebuilds, Starfleet Academy has reopened, as well. Giamatti is the second casting announcement for the series; last month, the streamer announced that Holly Hunter will play the Academy’s chancellor and captain. More announcements are likely coming soon, as the series is set to begin filming at Toronto’s Star Trek Stagethis summer.
It’s the second TV role Giamatti has taken on in as many weeks; last week, he was announced to star in a new TV incarnation of the Hostel horror franchise. He is also set to reprise his role as free-spending playboy Harold Levinson in the third Downton Abbey movie.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is set to film this summer; no release date has yet been announced.
via Collider