The highly anticipated series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will debut on May 5th, with production on the second season already underway. Now, Captain Pike himself, Anson Mount, has provided an update on how season two production is going as well as his assessment on the first episodes from season one.
Mount happy with Strange New Worlds
Today, Anson Mount held an Instagram Live event with Branan Edgens to talk about the third season of their podcast The Well, which debuts on Monday. Mount started things off by giving an update on what’s currently keeping him busy, which is shooting for the second season of Strange New Worlds, revealing over the last week that the production was doing location shooting in Peterborough, Ontario, running until late Friday after midnight. He said he will start back up on Monday with a 5:00 AM pickup, adding “It is another full week. One of those weeks I am in everything.”
Mount also talked about how production is going:
[It’s] great, great. I mean, it’s Star Trek, you know? [laughs] The next three days we are shooting on our amazing AR Wall… It’s going smoothly, amazingly. We’re surviving through COVID and all the bumps and bruises that has brought with it.
Anson Mount from his Instagram live event on Sunday
Of course, all of that work is for the second season, but the actor also gave a preview of some of the promotions for the upcoming series premiere:
We are starting to gear up for the premiere of the show itself. And that’s really exciting… There are a few things in the offing which I can’t really discuss, but I’m going to [Mission: Star Trek] in Chicago in a couple of weeks and I’m going to be seeing people there. And we’re going to be doing a lot of press. And I think we are putting together a premiere for New York, but obviously a lot of that is going to depend on how COVID rolls. That all would be happening in the week prior to launch, which is May 5th.
He also revealed he has seen the first three episodes from season one:
I don’t like to see it until it’s all put together and [my wife and I] have seen the first three so far. And I’m really happy with it. Very, very happy with it. We’re going to watch episode four tonight, and I have been hearing amazing things. The network, fellow directors, everybody has been saying episode four is really special. So, I’m looking forward to seeing that.
Anson Mount as Captain Pike in Strange New Worlds teaser
Jerry approves too
Star Trek: Lower Decks star Jerry O’Connell (Ransom) revealed on Twitter that he has also seen two episodes of Strange New Worlds, which features his wife Rebecca Romijn (Number One). He it was “everything and then some” and he couldn’t “stop thinking about it,” expressing pride in his wife.
Just watched two episodes of Strange New Worlds. It is everything and then some. Cannot stop thinking about it. So proud to be married to #1. CANNOT STOP THINKING ABOUT IT. pic.twitter.com/Cc8DC5SuWQ
— Jerry O'Connell (@MrJerryOC) March 25, 2022
Watch Mount’s Instagram event
Here is the full video of Mount and Edgens, which includes some discussion of Star Trek stars who will be interviewed in the third season of The Well Pod.
View this post on Instagram
Find more news and analysis for Strange New Worlds.
So excited. Can’t wait for SNW.
Wow, didn’t know “Ransom” was married to Number One. One big happy fleet… :-)
It’s funny they are also both First Officers on their ships, just a century apart!
SNW is going to make me one very happy man. I can just feel it.
I would love to read just once where an actor, producer, writer etc say the show/movie they are making ISN’T great or won’t blow you away before it launches. That will be real news for the first time ever lol.
But I have my fingers crossed. And one thing I will say is all the new shows thus far actually started off pretty strongly or with promise at least, so he could be completely right too.
And May 5th is my birthday! Nice to get this kind of present for it!
‘Mmm yeah. It’s fine. It’s okay. It’s not terrible. (Pops gum into his mouth and chews, as he considers). It’s better than Discovery, anyway.’
If ONE episode counts as “starting off pretty strongly”, then I guess that Season 2 of Picard qualifies! : D
LOL, but I think all the shows first few episodes started off well. And most people seemed to like the first two episodes of Picard in season 2 although each episode sadly seems to be getting worse. I’m not saying that’s a consensus or anything, just based on reading these and other boards. Sadly I feel that way personally and didn’t like episode 3 and 4 at all (episode 4 improved a little with a second viewing though).
I enjoy your comments pretty much more than anyone else here. Because you’re neither a ‘hater’ nor a person who cannot turn a critical eye on anything with the ‘Star Trek’ name attached to it. Your reactions / analysis (though I don’t always agree with them) are sincere and fair.
Wow I really appreciate that Anthony! :)
Yeah I am definitely not a hater. I love everything about Star Trek, every show and movie series. I just try to be objective as possible when discussing it too and of course that’s not always the case but I do try. Even the things I don’t love, I want to still love it, but I don’t shy away from my issues with them.
It is funny that I been called both a hater and an apologist on this board lol. Not anytime recently and most of those people are gone now. I think most of us are at least open minded about everything in this franchise or we wouldn’t be wasting our time talking about it and now paying money to watch it every week. The newer stuff is taking time to gel for some but that’s been the case since 1987. I’m just happy we have new Star Trek on every week and will happily watch even if I complain about it later lol.
Some of the TNG stars were pretty critical about Nemesis (and especially director Stuart Baird) but I don’t remember if that was already before release or only after the movie had tanked.
To my knowledge, it’s usually part of the actors’ contracts to promote the stuff they are in. Usually, the criticism only gets out later. And I mean, it makes sense to keep quiet beforehand: Why would you discourage potential audiences from checking out your product by telling them “Careful there, it sucks!”?
Yes it was AFTER the film came out and basically bombed. I’m talking before then. Here is a great example of Marina Sirtis talking up the film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1pYy3cveGU
Today she is probably it’s biggest basher in the cast, but back then it was ‘good’ and something people would ‘enjoy it’. Obviously it’s their job to sell the show or movie, they wouldn’t have a job if they cut it down before hand. I’m only saying it’s hard to take these type of interviews or declarations seriously most of the time too from actors or producers.
Oh, sure. It’s a good idea to always take proclamations of how great a movie/TV show is from anybody involved in making it with a grain of salt.
On the one hand, these people are trying to sell you their product. On the other hand, fans cannot even agree on what is good or bad Trek. So you may think they lied to you but other fans may actually agree with what the actors/producers said.
I’ve interviewed a ton of people over the years about films and TV shows — mostly behind the scenes folks, though a few on-camera folk like Stewart and Travolta — and yeah, there’s nearly always a Dale Carnegie-course attitude of optimism that gets invoked at some point. Every once in awhile, you’ll get a free spirit — usually somebody about to leave a company or the business or who just feels compelled to be honest — who will give you a warts&all accounting, even though you both know that it’ll never get printed (talkin’ ’bout RED PLANET and BATTLEFIELD EARTH, to name just two, and it wasn’t Travolta badmouthing the latter, it was a VFX guy urging my mag to not even bother covering it.)
But when there’s genuine enthusiasm that comes through … well, you can just tell, because it isn’t a boilerplate paragraph, it is usually backed up with one or more anecdotes that get reinforced with how said event made the interviewee realize just how good/important/funny this project was really turning out to be.
When you talk to a gaffer (lighting guy) and he goes on about the artistry of the DP’s shot design and how he feels happy to contribute to that AND how it fed into the way the whole project inspired others, you know it ain’t just B.S.
Paramount+ has THE OFFER coming in a month, and I would bet the pre-nuclear-winter farm that nearly everybody is going to be blown away by it, just going by the first 3 episodes. But I’d’ve hazarded a guess it might be this good just going by the interviews I did before I saw the screeners. They might as well save a lot of campaigning dollars and give Matthew Good the Emmy for his Robert Evans performance, the only thing that could remotely rival it is the guy playing Lenny Bruce on MAIZEL, and he has already won and shouldn’t pile on (plus he’d be in a different category.)
I thought I knew a lot about the making of THE GODFATHER, but they have not only been pretty honest in their retelling, they’ve done it in a compelling, downright engaging/entertaining way that just blows by. And it just seems so smartly done … you get a read on a couple of characters, but then when those characters finally meet, you get different shadings because of the way they rub one another — it’s genuine artistry (and you’d better believe I don’t usually gush about stuff I write about … and I had to write about WING COMMANDER, WILD WILD WEST and VIRUS in the same year [MY FAVORITE MARTIAN too, but I never actually had to see that.])
I think the spectre of bad writing hangs over all current Trek, probably even worse than early TNG or the VOY/ENT era, because I hadn’t seen anything approaching MEASURE OF A MAN turning up before I tuned out after ds2/ps1, but I still have a vague hope for SNW, just owing to Mount’s amazing presence. It might be he can only make the experience a good one on set for cast and crew while they all work away at shows that aren’t worth doing, but I would love to be wrong in this instance. I had no plan to engage another free or cheap trial on Par+ for SNW, but so long as I can dual-purpose that ride with THE OFFER, I’ll sign up short-term (plus it’d be a business expense.) But man, if they don’t put THE OFFER out on blu-ray, I will be sorely pissed.
I was only pointing out its ALWAYS positive about everything, which is understandable. But it’s always every episode is great, we are all one family, this is the best cast they worked with, the writers are excellent, it’s a well oiled machine and on and on. Again, it’s their jobs to do but there is rarely any nuance to it until years later we finally hear what they REALLY think, usually in a book or documentary.
But I understand it’s their jobs to sell the product. If you work for any company or government entity, that’s how it is for everyone to a degree. Difference being we don’t have to actively promote our jobs they way they do at times.
Haha it’s a good thing nobody interviewed Scott Bakula before the finale of Enterprise. It would have been epic!!!
Didn’t Jolene Blaylock vent about the series finale just before it aired (and Connor Trineer went silent)?
LOL Bakula has always been a gentleman at least. He’s on record really hating the finale (like most of us) but he never sounded mean or bitter about it.
Well, Michael Bay just talked about his upcoming movie “Ambulance” and mentioned he wasn’t that happy with some of the SFX work.
That’s pretty big of Bay then. I don’t hate the guy like others but he always came off super cocky about his movies. But I guess when they have made $5+ billion dollars at the BO alone, he can be.
Getting exciting!!!! Hopefully it’s some fun exploration of the unknown, rugged, dangerous but rewarding final frontier! It’s always great to see the big E in action too (may she last more than 20 seconds in combat like she is some heavy cruiser in a TOS episode or something).
Warp speed!
I am SO excited!!!!
It’s written by Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet and Akiva Goldsman, so I doubt it. But the rest of the episodes are penned by people that know how to write, so I look forward to the other 9.
I wouldn’t get too excited though. Akiva is co -showrunner, he’ll have a substantial say what happens in the other 9 episodes. Just saying.
And that worries me.
Well, at least the showrunner won’t be Michelle Paradise. She would take the Pike – Doctor scene from ‘The Cage’ and make that the template for the entire series. We would see the crew of the Enterprise endlessly sorting out their feelings. Forget about storytelling and sci-fi! haha.
Michelle Paradise is the worst. I just hope that she won’t be in charge of any future Star trek shows
Plus she’s a feemale. You guys really need to grow up. You’re too old for this toxic hate.
There have been many, many, many examples of competent ‘feemales’ in the history of Star Trek, beginning with Dorothy Fontana. Unfortunately, Paradise is not one of them. So stop using that tiresome PC police excuse to attempt to throttle legit criticism. That only shows your condescending attitude toward female professionals (they require your protection).
yes
LOL says you. You need to get rid of all that hate. Not good for your health.
I have to say, it’s knowing that the powers that be felt it necessary to shoehorn in James Kirk prematurely in the second season that has given me great pause.
I was so excited to have a real Pike’s Enterprise series. And Akiva Goldsman has been genuinely committed to that.
I don’t want or need James T Kirk to show up before the final season. A series that built to that in the future would be provide anticipation without taking away from the opportunity to truly tell the stories on the ship before Kirk.
It seems that whoever is in charge of the streamer now didn’t understand that The Cage had created a half century of pent up demand for Pike’s Enterprise, that was whipped up further by Mount’s performance in Discovery.
I’m worried that they may see Pike’s tenure and crew as a second best substitute for a Kirk reboot.
I tend to agree.
I am very worried about the programme-makers mucking this up.
As much as I love KIRK ( my favourite Captain ), it could be premature and entirely gimmicky to include him ( and to have him be portrayed by an actor who confusingly looks more like Jeffrey Hunter, judging by the official promo photo ).
Going by some of the very poor decisions and writing in the other live action NuTrek series, I AM very concerned about how SNW will be handled, and will Kirk’s appearance alienate Anson Mount and undermine his PIKE?
Exactly!
I pretty much fallen off the Trek bandwagon after ST09. I had high hopes for Discovery, but the first episode aired on CBS soured me to the entire thing and I have zero interest in watching any other episode of Discovery.
However, I liked what I saw in Mount from the behind-the-scenes stuff. So for a fleeting moment, despite having zero faith in any of the current Trek producers and show runners, I was really interested in “Strange New Worlds”. I was onboard until they announced casting Kirk for Season 2.
This needs to be Pike’s series, about Pike and Pike’s Enterprise. Kirk, if he ever needed to appear, should only have appeared to “pass the torch” in the final episode. If they wanted to do young Kirk, do a Academy/Republic/Farragut series.
” If they wanted to do young Kirk, do a Academy/Republic/Farragut series.”
That’s what I thought they might do.
As an uber TOS fan, I wanted a show about a young Kirk (and ideally Bones too) alongside SNW. I didn’t expect Captain Kirk to show up at all in SNW season 2. I don’t know where Kurtzmann and company are going with this. Are they doing the first two years of he 5 year mission that we never got (unless you count TAS)? I dunno. Are they having Kirk as the Captain of another ship? Maybe. I hope so, that would be great showing what he was doing before becoming the captain of the Enterprise. Better yet, have Bones and maybe Scotty with him.
In any case, I really hope the creators know what they’re doing. I just started Discovery Season 2 and although I have a few qualms (continuity and science issues mainly), I have really enjoyed the show. Obviously, the production is incredible, but that wouldn’t sell me on it. The stories, the action, and the just the freshness of it after Berman and Braga running the TNG formula for VOY and ENT is just great. The characters are good too, but I’m not in love with any of them, so that’s a bit of a ding. I take that back, I do really like Captain Lorca and Captain Pike. Saru is also interesting as well. The rest are likable, but none of them are my favorites (Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, Picard, Data, Odo and Quark, Seven, the EMH, etc.).
Lots of good news about current and upcoming streaming productions. Picard seems to be firing on all cylinders. Much love for SNW’s. Meanwhile, brushing asides the dust and cobwebs in the production office of Trek 14….six weeks of crickets. Even the hyperbolic Simon Pegg is quiet…..
Headline at politicalwire.com:
“Inflation Worries Mount”