2 More Cadets Cast For ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ – Prep Work Already Started In Toronto

The first class for the upcoming Star Trek: Starfleet Academy series is filling out with the announcement of two new members of the cast.

Welcome, cadets

Today Paramount+ announced Karim Diané (One Of Us Is Lying) and Zoë Steiner (Significant Others) have joined the cast of the Starfleet Academy. Both Diané and Steiner will be playing Academy cadets, joining the previously announced cadets Kerrice Brooks, Bella Shepard, and George Hawkins. The series also stars Holly Hunter as the captain and chancellor of Starfleet Academy, with Paul Giamatti as the season’s villain.

There are no other details about the roles they are playing but Paramount+ did provide this breakdown of the new actors…

Diané recently starred in the hit series One Of Us Is Lying and opposite Gabourey Sidibe in 1266. He will next be heard in the This American Life podcast in the episode “Afrikanas.” Diané is a Guinean singer and actor who started his career as a contestant on The X Factor. After a series of short films, in early 2017, Diané landed his first recurring role in the second season of the series StartUp.

Karim Diané (photo credit, Paradigm)

Steiner recently made her professional debut in the lead role of Hanna in Significant Others. Born and raised in Melbourne, Steiner was drawn to cinema and the films of Old Hollywood from a young age. Upon graduating from 16th StreetActors Studio in Melbourne, Zoë studied intensively under Lenard Petit at the Michael Chekhov Acting Studio in New York. She has trained with Carl Ford, Lisa Robertson, Iain Sinclair and Les Chantery. She is committed to raw, truthful storytelling. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne.

Zoë Steiner (photo credit, Steph Cammarano)

The new YA-focused Starfleet Academy series is set in the 32nd century, as established by the recent seasons of Star Trek: Discovery. Here again is the official synopsis for the new series.

The upcoming series will follow the adventures of a new class of Starfleet cadets as they come of age in one of the most legendary places in the galaxy. Produced by CBS Studios, the new series will begin production later this summer.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy introduces viewers to a young group of cadets who come together to pursue a common dream of hope and optimism. Under the watchful and demanding eyes of their instructors, they discover what it takes to become Starfleet officers as they navigate blossoming friendships, explosive rivalries, first loves and a new enemy that threatens both the Academy and the Federation itself.

Prep has begun

The new series is produced by CBS Studios, with Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau serving as co-showrunners and executive produce alongside executive producers Gaia Violo, Aaron Baiers, Olatunde Osunsanmi, Jenny Lumet, Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth, Frank Siracusa and John Weber. The series’ premiere episode is written by Gaia Violo.

Paramount+ has re-confirmed Starfleet Academy will begin production later this summer at Pinewood Studios in Toronto, where Star Trek: Discovery was filmed for five seasons. In fact, prep work for the show has already started in Toronto. Just yesterday cinematographer Phillip Lanyon, who has previously worked as a director of photography on both Discovery and Picard put up a post on Instagram sharing his office sign for Starfleet Academy. Lanyon’s post stated: “Very excited to be in prep for my third Star Trek show.”

 

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A post shared by Philip Lanyon (@philiplanyon)

Paramount+ has not set a target date for the release of the first season of Starfleet Academy but Alex Kurtzman has stated it may not be until 2026.


Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.

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Fill that cast, LET’S GO!

Love the looks of the young cast so far, even if it’s just headshots. Not too much to go on as they are all largely just starting their TV careers, but that unknown factor is exciting. Hope they have the time of their lives making this show!

Diané has a super intense look in his eyes — wondering if he might either be playing some sort of alpha jock, or (even better) the complete opposite: shy and/or cerebral. 🤔

Whatever these characters will be, I’m hoping for super interesting, with fun storylines (something Discovery was never able to pull off for me). 🤞🤨👍

Very smart of the production to cast young, relatively unknown actors, as that allows them to afford both Hunter and Giamatti, and it sets a path forward after an Academy series with the graduated crew on a vessel for many years to come. And we all expect that vessel to be named…. Enterprise.
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Legacy will work better as a series of films anyway, because to be able to afford having Ryan and others will get expensive quickly.

I had said for a long time that using Academy to spring board into Legacy would have been a great idea.

However, remember, that Academy is more a Discovery spinoff than anything due to it being in the 32nd Century. Still, wouldn’t be surprised if they were on the Enterprise.

My complete distaste for the 32nd century world they’ve constructed is what gives me pause about this effort. I hope they can do something with it.

Same! They just made everything appear so dismal, drab, underpopulated (and sadly, very unfamiliar) in Discovery. Hoping for a much more varied, vibrant and positive feel for Academy! 🤞😶

because the crew of Discovery were needed to help restore the Fed and starfleet, which they did by series end.

Oh, I do understand the narrative. I just thought the execution was horrible, and didn’t feel like it was even set in the same universe, no matter the timeline.

To me, it’s the “unfamiliar” that’s making all this so interesting. I’m so tired of giving way to the “fanboy” in me. I WHAT to go “Where no one has gone before.” I guess that’s why LEGACY and SNW doesn’t excite me and SECTION 31 and STARFLEET ACADEMY do.

Maybe a competent writing team can do something interesting with the 32nd century.

From her look, I bet Zoe Steiner will play a Vulcan or Romulan

Now that you mention it…

I’m surprised this is still happening since another Paramount+ show I liked was just cancelled.

Agreed.
If this does get fully produced…I wonder if they will have them in skin tight catsuits or the frumpy suits of Disco….and will they portray these young cadets as college kids doing hazing, partying, doing the Kolvoord Starburst routines and killing a few cadets or blowing up a whole ship or planet as result of their arrogance, inexperience, and young stupidity.

Also if social media and video-holo games are around in the 32 century that allow the kiddos to numb themselves in AI generative sex and violence Holoworld fantasies interplayed with reality all through their comm badge….they could be behind an engineering console saying ‘No response’ yet in their holofantasy they are partying it up with several Orions girls (or boys etc…) and off with some Klingons conquering and pillaging…..then they gotta get up at 0500 for their Temporal physics exam yet they’ll cheat since they’ve encoded the answers in their DNA and activate the answers by coughing….and if they get caught…they’ll CRYYYY like Michael Burnham to get sympathy and request to go to a safe room…in the end it doesnt matter since in this future timeline their are no exam grades its what you feel you deserve inside is what matters.

“She is committed to raw, truthful storytelling”. Who wrote this article? That reads like a press release from Zoe Steiner’s agent – haha. A good laugh. Well, she might end up not being a happy camper because Trek writers haven’t been turning out raw and truthful scripts lately. How about muddled, mediocre and soap opera storytelling?

What the hell is raw, truthful storytelling in a made-up future? They make it sound like they are hard-hitting journalists exposing government corruption or something. We don’t want activist writing; we want fun, exciting, adventurous writing!

DS9 felt raw and truthful so maybe they are aiming for that level.

One can only hope. It’s a lofty level to try and hit.

I have a cloud for you to yell at.

Love the diverse cast, now I wish they also add a white male to represent me.

no thanks.

Paul Giamatti isn’t white enough for you?

He will be a recurring villain. How about an actual cadet who is a white male?

stop trolling

How on Earth is that trolling? It is a genuine statement. It is you who is the master of trolling.

I mean, I don’t know what counts or doesn’t count as white in the US but George Hawkins looks pretty white and pretty male to me and he was just announced as playing a cadet on the show.

He is obviously bi-racial.

His own actor’s profile says “appearance: white”. But I guess just because he thinks so doesn’t mean he’s accepted into the white men’s club.

Well, I’m African-American and enjoy the representation. Of course STAR TREK has always been fair in that area. However, I do wish there was more Hispanics on the series and TREK in general. It’s not just for the sake of diversity, but because demographically they represent–as do African-Americans–a significant number of people in the culture and nation itself and need to be seen in the arts and media.

Oh, for crying out loud.

  • Have great writing
  • Tell a compelling story
  • Hit the ground running.
  • Show us thing we have not seen before
  • Comment on Earth-2024 but don’t be so obvious about it.
  • Show us JOY
  • Show us excitement

… and we’ll watch, and we might even love it.

Listen to Linus! He has the secret recipe for success!

I would add to that, create compelling characters that people will care about. The key to good Trek is a cast of characters that people want to spend time with.