Paul Giamatti Joins Star Trek: Starfleet Academy as Season 1’s Big Bad
Paul Giamatti is joining the Star Trek universe with a key role in Season 1 of the forthcoming Paramount+ series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
The Billions vet has boarded the live-action series as a recurring guest star, TVLine has confirmed. He’ll play Season 1’s as-yet-unnamed villain, “a man with an ominous past connected to one of our cadets.” He joins previously announced cast member Holly Hunter, who will star as the captain and chancellor of the titular Starfleet Academy.
“Sometimes you’re lucky enough to discover that one of the greatest actors alive is also a huge Star Trek fan, and meeting Paul was one of those miraculous moments for us,” co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau said in a statement Tuesday. “The sheer delight with which he dove in on Starfleet Academy is only surpassed by the gratitude we feel about him joining our incredible cast.”
Starfleet Academy marks the fifth live-action Star Trek series (and seventh Trek series overall) to debut on the streamer, following Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Short Treks, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Production is set to begin later this summer.
As previously reported, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will introduce viewers to a “young group of cadets who come together to pursue a common dream of hope and optimism,” according to the official logline. “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.”
Your thoughts on Giamatti’s new role at Starfleet Academy? Drop ’em in a comment below.
what a cast. All we need is Q to join in the fun.
I’m all for Q, but maybe not in the first episodes, or even the first season. Let’s get everything started first.
Just have him reprise his character from The Holdovers. Comedy gold.
GREAT actor!
And that is a great picture of him.
Still hoping Paramount reverses course and renews Lower Decks!
Lower Decks! Lower Decks! Lower Decks!
Paul Giamatti plays villains/ne’er-do-wells quite well. The question is, which type of Paul Giamatti villain will we have? Will it be a riff of Pig Vomit from “Private Parts” or a variation of “Big Fat Liar?” I am excited for the casting. Any word on Mary Wiseman?
Given that he just got an Oscar Best Actor nomination, Giamatti’s two recent TV moves are a bit odd (this and the Hostel show he was linked to a few weeks ago). You’d think he would want another prestige lead like he had in Billions but I guess he just likes genre roles a lot?
He likes a paycheck 🤷♂️
or more likely roles that peak his interest
Quite a cast they’re stacking up! Being named the season’s villain gives me a bit of pause as I think Star Trek is at its best when episodic, not season-long story arcs like Discovery tended to do, but we’ll see.
They are really setting a high bar with this cast. Holly Hunter. Paul Giamatti. I just hope the story they craft lives up to these talented people.
I really hope Mary Wiseman joins this show, considering where her character ended up on Discovery….especially as the *slight spoiler* longest serving instructor in the Academy’s history. Would prefer series regular on that but would be happy with an appearance.
Sounds fun. I’m in.
So what is he going to be doing on the new Star Trek??