As Star Trek: Discovery heads into its final two episodes, the next Star Trek series on Paramount+ is starting to build out its cast. For Starfleet Academy, they’ve found Holly Hunter as their lead.
The Academy Award-winning actress and The Incredibles film series star will portray the Academy’s captain and chancellor of the Academy, head of its faculty and lording over a new class of Starfleet cadets in the 32nd century (ie the setting of Discovery seasons 3-5) learning to navigate the galaxy. The Paramount+-based socials for the franchise also made the casting announcement.
Hunter’s breakout role is considered to be as Edwina "Ed" McDunnough in the 1987 Coen brothers film Raising Arizona earned an Oscar for best actress for her performance in 1993’s The Piano, the same year she was also nominated for best supporting actress in The Firm. She was previously nominated for best actress for 1987’s Broadcast News, and would get another supporting actress nod for 2003’s Thirteen. She hasn’t appeared in a released film since reprising Elastigirl for Incredibles 2 in 2018, but roles that were recent at the time included Senator June Finch, the prominent Senator in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. On television, she’s had two series regular roles: as the starring lead on the TNT crime series Saving Grace, where she also executive produced for its three seasons, and the two-season NBC comedy Mr. Mayor alongside Ted Danson post-The Good Place. She has won Emmys for two TV movies.
The series is poised to diversify what Star Trek series can look like, not only with focus on higher education and the pressures of achievement, self-discovery, and romance, but when it starts filming in Pinewood Studios in Toronto this summer, it will feature the largest contiguous set ever constructed for a Star Trek series, a central academic atrium spanning two stories, featuring an amphitheater, classrooms, a mess hall, and a blissful tree-packed walkway, making use of every inch of the 45,900 square foot soundstage.
“It feels like we’ve spent our entire lives watching Holly Hunter be a stone-cold genius,” said co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau. “To have her extraordinary authenticity, fearlessness, sense of humor, and across the board brilliance leading the charge on Starfleet Academy is a gift to all of us, and to the enduring legacy of Star Trek.” Kurtzman and Landau also executive produce the series with first episode writer Gaia Violo, Aaron Baiers, Olatunde Osunsanmi, Jenny Lumet, Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth, Frank Siracusa, and John Weber. CBS Studios produces in association with Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment and Paramount Global Content Distribution distributes.
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