‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Teaser Finds the Class in Session!! Check It Out!!

Class is in session for the next crop of cadets, ready to go boldly where no man has gone before. That’s because the first trailer for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has officially dropped for audiences during San Diego Comic Con in Hall H. The trailer introduces fans to Holly Hunter‘s character, a captain and Chancellor of Starfleet Academy. Feelings of hope brim throughout the trailer, as the next generation (no pun intended) of Starfleet officers come into their own.

The trailer is also filled with Easter eggs for longtime Trek fans, including a wall of honor behind the cadets. It lists characters that fans of Star Trek: The Original Series, The Next Generation, Voyager, Deep Space Nine, or even Enterprise may recognize, revealing the fate (at least in terms of rank) of their favorite characters. Elsewhere, Deep Space Nine fans may want to sit down, as there’s also a shot of Sam (Kerrice Brooks) approaching a monitor that says “Confronting the Unexplainable: The Fate of Benjamin Sisko Emissary of the Prophets.” While it could just be an Easter egg as a nod to DS9 fans, the potential of that cliffhanger resolving is enticing.

The Who’s Who of ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’

In addition to the trailer, fans are learning more about some of the characters they’ll meet in this latest Star Trek spin-off. Paramount confirms Zoë Steiner as Tarima Sadal, who they say is a Betazoid and the daughter of the president of Betazed. Fans will also get to meet Commander Lura Thok (Gina Yashere), who they say is a Klingon/Jem’Hadar hybrid. Thok is the chancellor’s First Officer and Cadet Master. And finally, fans have an idea of Paul Giamatti‘s character. Giamatti will play Nus Braka, who is part Klingon, part Tellarite, and can be heard whistling the original Star Trek theme at the end of the trailer. Braka will be the season’s villain, with a connection to one of the cadets. Returning to the world of Star Trek is Robert Picardo, reprising his role as the Emergency Medical Hologram that became so much more, The Doctor. Tig Notaro will reprise her role as Jett Reno, and Oded Fehr will reprise his role as Admiral Vance. With the new character information, coupled with the trailer, there’s so much to unpack. Fans will find themselves revisiting the trailer frame by frame just to see what Easter eggs showrunner Alex Kurtzman and others behind the spin-off left for them.