Star Trek: Starfleet Academy boasts the franchise’s most exciting new villain since Star Trek: Picard season 3 introduced Amanda Plummer as Captain Vadic. Starfleet Academy, executive produced by co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau, is currently in production at the Star Trek Stage in Toronto, Canada. Targeting a 2026 premiere on Paramount+, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is headlined by Academy Award winner Holly Hunter and Academy Award nominee Paul Giamatti, who plays the show’s recurring villain.
Star Trek boasts a cavalcade of legendary villains like Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) and the Borg Queen (Alice Krige), but it’s not often Star Trek TV series announce their villains beforehand. Star Trek on Paramount+’s shows like to keep as much under wraps as possible to avoid spoilers. A recent exception is Star Trek: Picard season 3, which revealed from the outset that Amanda Plummer was playing the villainous Vadic. Not only is Plummer Star Trek royalty as the daughter of Christopher Plummer, who played Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country’s heavy, General Chang, but Amanda left fans breathless with her villainous turn as Vadic in Picard season 3.
Paul Giamatti Is Star Trek’s Most Exciting New Villain
Move over, Captain Vadic
Casting Paul Giamatti in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is a major coup, and setting the Emmy and Golden Globe winner up as the next Star Trek show’s villain is ideal. Giamatti is a highly respected actor and an A-list star who has delivered multiple barnburner performances in films like Sideways and The Holdovers, and TV series like John Adams and Billions. Giamatti is also a lifelong Star Trek fan who is now living his dream of being part of the franchise. Certainly, Paul Giamatti will garner curious audiences to take a look at Starfleet Academy, as he’s among the most unexpected actors cast in Star Trek.
The details of who Paul Giamatti is playing in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy are being kept under wraps. Giamatti has always wanted to play a Klingon, but it’s unknown what form Paul’s Starfleet Academy villain will take. Giamatti is also only recurring in Starfleet Academy, but there’s no doubt Paul will maximize his time on screen to be impactful and memorable. Giamatti dreamed of joining Star Trek for his entire career, and Starfleet Academy is bound to unleash something special with Paul Giamatti that could rank among the greatest Star Trek villains.
What We Know About Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
Star Trek’s future is in production now
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is set after the end of Star Trek: Discovery, and it continues Star Trek’s 32nd-century era. Set in space and in San Francisco, Starfleet Academy introduces a new young cast of fresh faces pursuing their dreams of becoming Starfleet Officers. However, a new threat to the United Federation of Planets – which is likely Paul Giamatti’s Star Trek villain – and the cadets learning of the Federation’s sins complicate their lives as they grow, pursue love, and learn what it takes to be a part of Starfleet.
Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti lead Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s cast of young actors, and they will also be joined by a handful of Star Trek legacy characters. Mary Wiseman as Lt. Sylvia Tilly, Tig Notaro as Commander Jett Reno, Oded Fehr as Admiral Charles Vance will all return from Star Trek: Discovery. In addition, The Doctor (Robert Picardo) from Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Prodigy will also be part of Starfleet Academy, which is filming on the biggest set ever constructed for Star Trek. What kind of havoc Paul Giamatti’s villain will wreak on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy remains to be seen, but it should be nothing less than epic.